What does it take to get 200 households to actually care about what goes in the recycling bin? According to Suraksha Baral, it takes good science — and even better storytelling.
Baral is a Ph.D. student in Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics at The Ohio State University, where her research focuses on circular economics — recycling, composting, and food waste — and specifically on how communication affects whether people actually participate in sustainability programs. She is the 2025 CAST Science Communication Scholarship recipient.
In her own words, her work is about “connecting resources with everyday life.” Working with partners including SWACO Franklin County, the University District Organization, and Green Scope Consulting, she has seen firsthand that most households want to do the right thing environmentally — but the information they receive is often confusing or inconsistent. Her Can Fairy program addressed that directly, serving Columbus households between 11th and Lane Avenues with weekly curbside recycling pickup, prizes for clean collections, and a steady stream of practical, creative content — memes, infographics, neighborhood emails — designed to make recycling specific, approachable, and personal.
As Baral describes it: “People usually do not ignore science because they do not care. Often, they just cannot translate it into daily decisions.” In recycling, she notes, small differences in how information is framed can determine whether a household participates correctly or gives up entirely.
That same commitment to making data actionable runs through her published research. As a co-author on a July 2024 farmdoc daily article — “Number of Farms and Land in Farms in the Midwest” (Katchova, Baral, Ju, and Zulauf) — she contributed to an analysis of farm and farmland trends across eight Midwestern states using USDA Census of Agriculture data. At the Farm Science Review, she translated that research into direct conversations with visitors, connecting the numbers to real questions about who is farming, who is leaving, and what that means for rural communities.
To Baral, good science communication means “making resources understandable, practical, trustworthy, so communities can actually use it.” She also shares research through social media, departmental newsletters, and outreach modules co-developed with agricultural communication students at Ohio State — turning academic papers into content built for real audiences.
Baral will bring her work to the CAST Annual Meeting and Student Innovation Conference in St. Louis, Missouri in October 2026, where she will showcase her research as part of the conference program. It is a fitting stage for a researcher committed to making agricultural science legible to the communities it serves.
CAST is proud to support researchers who see that work as part of the science itself.
Hear directly from Suraksha in the video below, where she reflects on the scholarship and the role of science communication in her work.
