Connecticut College strives to be one of the leading colleges in the United States for promoting sustainability. The school defines sustainability as: “a framework by which long-lasting solutions to local and global challenges are developed through understanding the connections among social equity, environmental stewardship and economic wellbeing and including all three within all decision-making and strategic planning processes.” The school and its students have continued to prioritize environmental sustainability through recent initiatives across campus.
For one, plastic straws at all the coffee shops across campus have been switched with paper or metal straws. Anna Laprise ’20 and Avatar Simpson ’20, who were researching straws usage on campus, found that the College’s three coffee shops used over 100,000 straws every year. A straw, which seems like a harmless, everyday item, is just another example of the overuse of plastic in today’s world. Plastic straws contribute to large amounts of plastic pollution, and they almost always make their way in the oceans. Moreover, plastic cannot be recycled and takes millions of years, if ever, to biodegrade. It is estimated that the United States uses around 500 million straws a day, and with the staggering amount of plastic ending up in the oceans, it is projected that by 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean. “It’s become something consumers do mindlessly,” said Laprise, a government major. “Except in cases where straws are necessary for medical reasons, we don’t really need them. It’s very easy to just not take the straw.” Just this small change from plastic to paper straws has a massive impact on the health of the ocean which is already dealing with issues stemming from climate change. The College has also removed plastic water bottles that were distributed at Grab and Go. Grab and Go has also taken part in incorporating paper straws during its service on weekdays.
In attempts to minimize the issue of wasting paper, the College has swapped the paper slips at Oasis in Crozier-Williams with laminated slips, making them reusable. Just on a Saturday night alone, the amount of slips used by people coming from the Ridges and Winches to Oasis are likely staggering. This new method, despite what some might view as being slightly more time-consuming, is a great move made by the College to work on reducing paper waste. Despite plastic often being viewed as being more environmentally harmful than paper, twice the amount of energy is needed to produce paper than to produce a plastic bag. The use of the paper slips that are really only used for a couple seconds by the cooking staff in retrospect really didn’t make any sense. Simply reciting your order to the staff seems the most logical scenario, but if the amount of orders coming in becomes too hectic, the new reusable slips is for sure the best solution to the problem. I did notice, however, that there are times where the paper slips still exist next to the reusable slips. Papers slips circulate during busy nights as a means of fulfilling incoming orders. While the presence of paper slips does offset attempts to use laminated slips, the weekly use of reusable slips continues to be a positive change. If this next direction is to be successful, there needs to be a full removal of the paper slips from Oasis.
Ultimately, the College has made a few good strides towards increasing the school’s sustainability and today more than ever, these initiatives must be made in order to ensure a healthier planet. Small actions like using a paper straw or taking a few more seconds to use a reusable slip to write your order have exponential impacts on a threatened world that desperately needs help from those living in it. •
