Disrupting Disposables The Drive to Banish Single-Use Plastics
by Yvette C. Hammett
U
niversities, sports There is momentum, gested by humans. Because arenas, restaubut it is challenging. plastics are made from perants and other troleum, their production businesses are taking up ~Eric DesRoberts also adds to greenhouse the call to “disrupt disposgases that contribute to the ables” as part of a global effort to dramaticlimate crisis. cally cut down on single-use plastics. The Two-pronged efforts by businesses environmental problems caused by those and individuals to divert plastics from ubiquitous throwaways have become a the waste system and replacing them mainstay of news reporting, and studies on with Earth-friendly alternatives will how best to reduce them through public eventually pay off, experts say, but it will policy abound. A recent Canadian research be a long and slow process. However, paper in the Marine Pollution Bulletin momentum is building, spurred by conexplores strategies such as bans, tax levies sumer demand and a growing number and education. Experts agree that it is not of enterprising businesses, organizations just a litter problem, but a sobering matter and academic institutions. of human and planetary health. At Penn State University, agricul As these plastics wind up in the ture and biological engineering profesoceans and landfills worldwide, they can sor Judd Michael is working with sports languish virtually intact for up to 1,000 facilities to lower both plastics use and years, entangling and choking marine littering; the initiative is working so well mammals and terrestrial wildlife. Or, they that their approaches may be taken up by break into toxic microplastics that enter other schools across the nation. “One of drinking water supplies, eventually inmy projects is with NASCAR’s Pocono
Raceway [also in Pennsylvania], where the owners of the track wanted to continue to make the venue more green,” he says. “There is zero waste in suites for that track, and they are initiating a comprehensive recycling program. They try to get tailgaters to participate, as well.” On campus, Penn State provides bags of different colors for tailgaters with instructions for fans to separate recyclables in one bag and everything else in the other. That program was exported to Pocono. Michael is also working with PepsiCo, which owns Frito-Lay, to develop alternative packaging. The University of Florida’s efforts began in 2012, when the campus freed itself from plastic bags, getting buy-in from Chick-Fil-A, Subway and other eateries that agreed to switch to alternatives. “We’ve been Styrofoam-free since 2012, as well,” says Allison Vitt, outreach and communications coordinator for the UF Office of Sustainability. “At the end of 2018, we officially switched over all to compostable straws.”
A lot of local folks have really changed their perspective. We see a lot more customers coming in and saying they appreciate that we are using compostable cups and compostable straws. ~Dana Honn They feel like plastic, but are certified compostable, she says. UF has engaged with Cupanion, a company that developed an app that has a “fill it forward” program, distributing money to clean-water charities worldwide. “Since 2016, we’ve been working with them to reduce single-use plastic, rewarding people for reusing their bottles,” says Vitt. Interested students, staff and faculty are given a barcode sticker to scan on their phone each time a bottle is refilled at a
We don’t need a handful of people doing zero waste perfectly. We need millions of people doing it imperfectly. ~ Anne Marie Bonneau a.k.a. The Zero Waste Chef 32
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