Different data methods have been used in this waste management project. In my opinion, the whole project is about data collection, to find out the best way to deal with organic waste. The final solution is really based on our research. More data we collected, more effective the solution will be.
The folding Caddy we designed is based on the waste audit. The waste audit was the first data method we used in this project. We collected data that how much organic waste can a person produce in one day, and how much newspapers do we need to hold the organic waste. The data shows that the one person’s one day organic waste can’t really fill that bin, so we designed a triangle shape caddy which only used 2 pages of newspapers and easy to hold. The both user and eco-friendly caddy is benefited by the data methods. The audit also helped us in further design.
Field survey is another method we used for collecting data. 
For this project, our focus is the organic waste in UTS housing. Me and my group members went to different UTS housings and even urbanest to do the survey. Going inside of the housings helps us to understand how the existing waste management running, and how students prepare food, cook meals, and deal with their waste in reality. We can find the defect from the existing waste system, thereby fixing and improving the system.
The nine planetary boundaries let us brainstorm and collect data from research to focus on different perspectives in different fields of the earth system.
This is a very broad system which ranks the critical level of existing issues of our planet. The hierarchy is so clear that we can regard some of its important points as our higher priority to focus on.
Interview and questionnaire are also used for data collection in this project.
These 2 methods are the most direct and perspicuous ways to understand the problem. Our initial idea is about a food share app using among students, so, get information and feedback from students are the most direct way. I went to different locations to do the investigation, to find the common problems existing in the apartments, and also send the questionnaire we made to some international students to know their life style and their awareness of waste management.
We did literature review to know how other universities deal with organic waste for references. Dealing with organic waste in university of Sydney, university of Illinois are quite particular. Students grow their own organic food, buying sustainable produced food, reducing organic waste, higher recycling rate, etc. literature is another efficient and quick way for gathering useful data, and all the data methods we used have contributed significant information to our final design.
References
MY-PEER toolkit, Data collection methods, viewed 28 April 2017, < http://mypeer.org.au/monitoring-evaluation/data-collection-methods/>.
Stockholm Resilience Centre, The nine planetary boundaries, viewed 29 April 2017, < http://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/planetary-boundaries/planetary-boundaries/about-the-research/the-nine-planetary-boundaries.html>.
Unversity of Illinois housing, viewed 1 June 2017, <>=http://www.housing.illinois.edu/dining/about-dining/sustainability>.
Wealth From Waste 