Spring 2024 Sustainability Fellow: Kiana Sweger
Partner: Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP)
Project: Rethink. Reset. Recycle. Website Phase 2 Development
Student: Kiana Sweger
Kiana Sweger, a fourth-year undergraduate majoring in Environmental Science, worked as a Sustainability Fellow during the Spring 2024 semester. Partnered with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP), Kiana worked with Chris Perry to help create an online resource for citizens to learn what materials are accepted in their local recycling programs.
Recycling in Florida varies from city to county to region. Many Floridians are unaware of opportunities to recycle in their area. FDEP takes calls daily to direct citizen inquiries to local facilities for recycling and has no online presence to assist local inquiries regarding recycling availability. Kiana is passionate about waste reduction as she served as a Garnet and Gold Goes Green (G4) Ambassador for Sustainable Campus in the Spring semester as well.
“I am very interested in waste management and how recycling works. The lack of recycling policies and education really frustrates me, and I could see myself being involved in this in the future,” Kiana said.
A previous fellow begun the process of finding recycling information across the state so Kiana was able to pick up where they left off. She researched online by municipality/county and found as much information as she could to compile into the spreadsheet. Sometimes, the information was hard to find, or non-existent, so she had to make phone calls or send emails, hoping for responses. Regardless, Kiana persisted and filled out the necessary information on the spreadsheet.
Another challenge throughout the project was not interacting with people very often. Her project was a mostly solitary research project that required her to be self-motivated and confident in her decision-making skills. Luckily, Chris Perry communicated with her regularly regarding progress and she got to see the other Fellows monthly during Check-Ins.
Although there is some information that is still not available throughout the state, this spreadsheet is a huge accomplishment. FDEP plans to eventually post the data on their website to help citizens across Florida to easily access information regarding recycling in their communities. Kiana was happy to complete her project and share it with the community.
“I enjoyed getting to present my research at the end, and telling people about my project. The public needs to be informed on what their local recycling policies are, and collecting this data is the first step to making this information more readily available online,” Kiana said.
To learn more about Kiana's project, click here.
To learn more about the Sustainability Fellows program, visit sustainablecampus.fsu.edu/sustainability-fellows.