Disrupting Disposables The Drive to Banish Single-Use Plastics
by Yvette C. Hammett
U
niversities, sports There is momentum, in the Marine Pollution arenas, restaubut it is challenging. Bulletin explores strategies rants and other such as bans, tax levies and businesses are taking up the ~Eric DesRoberts education. Experts agree call to “disrupt disposables” that it is not just a litter as part of a global effort to dramatically cut problem, but a sobering matter of human down on single-use plastics. The environand planetary health. mental problems caused by those ubiqui As these plastics wind up in the oceans tous throwaways have become a mainstay and landfills worldwide, they can lanof news reporting, and studies on how guish virtually intact for up to 1,000 years, best to reduce them through public policy entangling and choking marine mammals abound. A recent Canadian research paper and terrestrial wildlife. Or, they break into
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toxic microplastics that enter drinking water supplies, eventually ingested by humans. Because plastics are made from petroleum, their production also adds to greenhouse gases that contribute to the climate crisis. Two-pronged efforts by businesses and individuals to divert plastics from the waste system and replacing them with Earth-friendly alternatives will eventually pay off, experts say, but it will be a long and slow process. However, momentum is building, spurred by consumer demand and a growing number of enterprising businesses, organizations and academic institutions. At Penn State University, agriculture and biological engineering professor Judd Michael is working with sports facilities to lower both plastics use and littering; the initiative is working so well that their approaches may be taken up by other schools across the nation. “One of my 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.” 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
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