We are awash in plastics. In fact, plastics are so deeply enmeshed in our lives that we almost don’t notice them anymore. Sure, the plastic bags that are offered in stores or that come home with us from the supermarkets swaddling our bread are on our radar and, perhaps, we try to opt out when we can. The to-go containers from restaurants that are piled up in our cabinets are made from plastic. But, to be frank, I rarely notice all the plastic cooking utensils that I use on a daily basis and only recently have I considered needing to switch out the black plastic in our kitchen. How often do you consider the plastic that is omnipresent at our fingertips and pressed against our ears in the casing of our cell phones?
All that plastic ultimately is discarded and needs to go somewhere? Only a small percentage of it makes it to recycling centers where it is typically downcycled, to be made into a slightly inferior plastic. The vast majority, however, ends up as plastic pollution. You’ve seen it blowing down the streets or a bag stuck in a tree along the side of the highway. But even more of it ends up in developing countries, littering oceans, waterways and filling up engulfing dumps. Plastic does not decompose but instead breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces that stay in the environment and pose a risk to marine life and impacts the food chain.
These microplastics and nanoplastics are also ingested by humans and while the long-term human health implications are unclear, a steady stream of studies are emerging that are concerning about both the amount of plastics humans take in and the ways that plastics are leeching. You may have read that on average adult humans ingest 5 grams worth of microplastics a week, equivalent to a credit card and that research has shown that plastics are in fact breaching the blood-brain barrier. Plastics are made from petroleum products and thus also impact the climate, a threat that is growing as plastic is becoming the new coal, according to Beyond Plastics, and its production also disproportionately impacts environmental justice communities in so-called Cancer Alley in the Gulf coasts of Texas and Louisiana and along the Mississippi River.
So… what are we to do? Our first course of action can involve changing our individual habits. What might that include? Bring reusable bags with you when you go shopping. Consider not grabbing plastic bags in the produce section and instead bringing your own. Instead of buying water and beverages in plastic bottles, you can also reusable water bottles made from stainless steel, glass, or ceramic. While these individual actions are all well and good, they, alone, won’t save us. (Nor should they, I don’t think, be our sole focus or a morass of guilt in which we get stuck.) We’re part of bigger systems that set the agenda, so to speak, by leaving us with a narrow assortment of options.
So besides your individual actions, what can you have influence over? Are you a leader or organizer of a group? Do you have a say in setting policy or deciding upon supplies for the school year or for an upcoming event? If so, could you help your group move away from buying single-use plastic water bottles for an event? Could you ask the restaurant that you’re ordering from whether they have alternatives for to-go containers and serviceware? Perhaps you could tell them that you don’t need the plastic forks and spoons (because you can use some that your Entry or Department has or you can borrow reusable dish kits from the Davis Center or Zilkha Center for the Environment).
Are there other places you have influence? Could you pivot from the cheap, plastic swag for your tabling event to something else that will draw people in? (Food or (healthy) treats are often a good choice.) Could you take the extra step to contact the company you are ordering from to ask about the options to reduce plastic in their packaging materials? Besides using your role in organizations and clubs that buy things to make change, a number of states and municipalities are working on legislation that would curtail single-use plastics.
At the college, an opportunity presented itself in the form of the Break Free from Plastic Pledge. Since 2019, the Zilkha Center for the Environment has worked with Post Landfill Action Network on campus wide zero waste assessments and on the college’s Zero Waste Action Plan (ZWAP). One of the actions in the ZWAP is to reduce plastics. The Break Free from Plastic Pledge (BFFPP) focuses on eliminating single-use non-essential plastics and focuses on Dining Services where there are, in many cases, viable alternatives.
After initial conversations with campus stakeholders a couple of years ago, the ZCE hired a plastic reduction intern, Brian Lavinio ‘24, last academic year. He dug into the weeds of the pledge and worked closely with Jeanette Kopcynski, Senior Director of Dining and Auxiliary Operations in Dining Services, to see what was possible on their end.
Dining had switched from plastic to-gos to compostable items quite a while ago, but the work this past year was to identify single-use non-essential items that were still in their systems that had viable
alternatives. In early May, President Mandel and senior staff threw their support behind the pledge and later in the month, there was a small signing ceremony with campus stakeholders involved in the work.
So what comes after signing the pledge? The pledge calls for the college to convene a plastic task force of students, staff, and faculty, immediately eliminating all non-essential, single-use disposable plastics with readily available alternatives. The ZCE is currently working to pull that group together and its first order of business will be to work with Dining Services to review the list of items. The pledge then calls for the college to establish a procurement and/or purchasing policy framework for the long-term elimination of those plastics by contracted food vendors and the college. And lastly, it calls for ensuring that proper campus-wide collection and management systems are in place for plastic-free alternatives such as resusables and compostables.
All that to say; a pledge has been made and a group is going to work to reduce non-essential single-use plastics (NESUPs) in Dining Services. Beyond that, we are asking everyone to examine the plastics in your purview that cycle through your department or student group (especially the NESUPs) and to see if there are ways to eliminate or reduce them.
BFFPP is but one lever, but we think it’s a great next step for the college. I’m looking forward to continuing to work with you and the rest of the college community to collectively create a more sustainable institution.
If you would like to throw your hat in the ring for the plastics task force, please email me at [email protected]
Special thanks to: a) the Zero Waste Interns and EcoReps over the years who have worked to reduce plastic and the college, b) Jeanette Kopczynski and Temesgen Araya in Dining who have been great partners, c) the Zero Waste Action Planning Group, d) President Mandel and senior staff who have supported this effort, and e) Judith Enck and the Beyond Plastics organization who are leading the charge on the fight against plastics.
Written by Mike Evans, Deputy Director for Campus Sustainability, Zilkha Center for the Environment.