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Students may notice some changes have been made to their coffee cup the next time their order is up.
To help reduce waste created by the university, lids and sleeves on beverages won’t be offered unless asked for.
In addition, the plastic plates used in the Idaho Commons have been replaced with potato-based plates that are biodegradable. The soup bowls are now made from a sugar cane base and old salad containers have been replaced with corn syrup-based boxes that look just like the Styrofoam containers.
The changes are part of a collaborative effort between UI’s Sustainability Planning Committee and campus dining to change what was once waste that clogs landfills into reusable materials.
“Changes were made to make food systems more sustainable from start to finish,” said Alecia Hoene, UI’s Sustainability Center director.
Hoene said as compostable materials build up they create their own heat, which makes them easier to grind up. Because of their natural bases, the mulch can then be used as a fertilizer.
As of now, the process is in its first stages. Jerry Curtis, general manager for campus dining, said almost all of the plastic plates have been eliminated. The next step will be to eliminate all plastic utensils but, because of price, Curtis said the process is slow.
Funding for a composter for Latah Sanitation is also just beginning. Curtis said just getting the project off the ground is the first step.
“If we don’t start now, how are we going to get everyone interested?” he said. “(Soon) we will have everything going to fertilize farmer’s crops. You can’t do that with plastic.”
Darin Saul, UISC coordinator, said the project is just another part of the university’s commitment to sustainability. The UISC’s recent focus has been recycling and managing food waste. The UI sustainability planning committee meets every other week to discuss new ways to integrate green projects.
On Tuesday, UISPC will be touring Wallace to decide what changes need to be made in the complex and to expand their work.
UI senior Jay Loveland has already initiated a campaign to reduce food waste. He began collecting data from the Wallace complex last fall. During his study of more than 17,000 meals, he found each student wastes 1.5 pounds of food per week.
He has been continually working to educate students about their wasteful habits and will conduct another study in April to see if his efforts had an effect.
“I’m just another consumer wanting to do my part,” he said. “I know it’s something we can do to reduce our ecological footprint.”
Family housing will also see a new system of recycling. Starting March 1 and going for a year, residents will have the use of two Dumpsters, one for recyclable material of all sorts and one for trash. Using the simplified system, UISPC hopes to encourage more recycling.
The Dumpsters will be picked up by Latah Sanitation and then shipped to Puget Sound for sorting.
UISPC will hold several informational sessions about the new process before it is implemented to teach tenants what is recyclable and what is not.
“We’re going to get the information out there so it will work when we start,” Saul said.
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