1/4/2024 0 Comments Csu meal swipes leftFor most people, it comes down to a matter of convenience. Luna indicates, however, that there are challenges that come with hauling around a reusable cup every day. Single-use items can be replaced with reusable cups, and some students and faculty can be seen bringing their own cups to the dining services to get their daily beverage of choice. And if they go into a plastics recycling bin, they will contaminate the recycling process,” said Sustainable America on their website. “If they are accidentally sent to a landfill and buried, it could take over a century (to biodegrade). One of the major concerns is what happens when these cups don’t make it into the right bin. World Centric estimates that each item takes about three to six months to compost. The compostable cups can exclusively be composted in a commercial industrial facility, where the materials are ground up and heated at high temperatures. In a statement on World Centric’s website, they rightfully claim that their products are “ lighter impact alternatives to everyday plastic and Styrofoam disposables,” yet, “ we encourage you to think hard before buying any single-use disposable products, even compostable ones.” “There is still an impact, there’s still the manufacturing of those cups, the composting of those cups – even if they are being composted, there’s still a lot of energy.” - Jessie Luna, an assistant professor of sociology World Centric is one of CSU’s suppliers of these plastic cups made from a material called polylactic acid, which is derived from a variety of plant-based starches rather than the traditional petroleum-based options. “There is still an impact, there’s still the manufacturing of those cups, the composting of those cups – even if they are being composted, there’s still a lot of energy,” Luna said. “Consumers see these green labels and think, ‘Oh, okay cool, I can throw it in this trashcan and I’m not producing trash,’ ” said Jessie Luna, an assistant professor of sociology at Colorado State University. Students can even use meal swipes at Rams Horn Express to get anything from smoothies to iced chai, all cold drinks served in compostable plastic cups. The University offers 962 sustainability-related courses, composts about 5,000 pounds of food waste from the dining centers each week, and has been rated a platinum bike-friendly university since 2011, according to the University’s State of Sustainability.īut, there is one discrepancy with these initiatives, and it’s in the single-use “certified compostable” plastics served by the dining facilities to students and faculty.Ī line of students can be seen wrapped around the corner to purchase their daily beverage at Sweet Temptations, one of the popular coffee shops on campus. Colorado State University isn’t shy about its sustainability achievements, and with good reason.
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