Episode 165 – CIRT: An Environmental Project to Reduce Waste

The podcast by project managers for project managers. This episode we share an environmental project story about CIRT, a startup company working on a solution to share recycling information to reduce waste. Kat Shayne and her team built a database to answer your recycling questions. Hear about the complex challenges encountered on this project.

Table of Contents

01:37 … Meet Kat04:37 … The Origin of CIRT08:17 … Accessing CIRT08:55 … Building a Database11:19 … What is GiGi?12:42 … Identifying What Can be Recycled13:59 … Keeping the Data Current15:40 … Skills or Passion?17:51 … Satisfying Stakeholders20:00 … Tackling Obstacles22:44 … Lessons Learned Building CIRT24:48 … Measuring the Impact of CIRT26:14 … I Wish I had Known!27:53 … Advice to Project Managers29:49 … Get in Touch with Kat31:12 … Closing

Kat Shayne: ...making sure that the people that are in place are doing the things that are their strengths, and providing access to resources and tools that help them work on their weaknesses.

WENDY GROUNDS:  Hello, and welcome to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  Thank you for joining us today.  My name is Wendy Grounds, and with me in the studio is Bill Yates.  We like to bring you stories about projects.  And today we are bringing you a story about Katherine Shayne.  She worked in environmental sustainability focused on global materials management and marine plastic litter for the Jambeck Research Group and UGA New Materials Institute.  Kat has a passion for bridging science and technology with business and mitigation strategies in communities especially in terms of waste management and new materials.

BILL YATES:  Wendy, have you ever been holding something in your hand, or you’re about to throw it in the trash, and you’re like, wait a minute, maybe I could recycle this.

WENDY GROUNDS:  Yes, yes, many a time.

BILL YATES:  So this is the question.  This is the problem that Kat and her team have been addressing.  At the University of Georgia Kat is the co-founder and president of Can I Recycle This.  It’s a startup company which is working on a solution to help people, people like me and you, governments, and businesses figure out what products or packaging are locally recyclable and how to get them to where they need to go.

WENDY GROUNDS:  Hi, Kat.  It’s great to have you on the podcast.  Thank you for joining us today.

KAT SHAYNE:  Thanks for having me.  I’m really excited to be here.

Meet Kat

WENDY GROUNDS:  I want to hear a little bit about your background before we start.  You have a master’s degree in environmental engineering from the University of Georgia.

BILL YATES:  Go Dawgs.

WENDY GROUNDS:  Yeah.

KAT SHAYNE:  Go Dawgs.

WENDY GROUNDS:  What sparked your interest in environmental sustainability?  How did it all begin?

KAT SHAYNE:  Actually, I did not plan on becoming an engineer at all.  I was an English major when I started at UGA.  And I was going pre-law because I’d already looked up one of the highest-passing degrees for the LSAT was English.  So I started off in English.  I was really passionate about writing.  And I had a class that was an elective science class.  It was with Dr. Knox.  He’s a climatologist at UGA.  And he had me in his class, and he asked me to come in for office hours one day.  He was like, what is your major?  And I told him I wanted to do pre-law. I really had a passion for policy and law.

And he says, “Well, you really have a knack for this,” because it was a climate course.  He said, you know, “Have you explored engineering, applied sciences?”  I said, “No, I didn’t even know UGA had engineering.”    So I went and checked it out, and at the same time I was trying to find a little bit more purpose in my degree, you know, what kind of law did I want to go into if I was going to do that.

Because my significant other at the time had been diagnosed with cancer.  And he was 20, and he had colon cancer.