Higher education has been a platform of social change, and higher educational institutions in Tampa Bay are taking initiatives to prevent more plastic from entering the oceans.
Heather McClurg, environmental activist and manager of the Break Free from Plastic campaign, is working to eliminate the use of single-use plastic on the USF Campus.
“We just started our campaign last semester and you know, we’re a really large community of 40,000 people,” said McClurg of the FPIRG. “So our goal is by fall 2021 that we can get enough support from students and faculty and student organizations that when we do bring this to Steve Currall and… the whole administration of USF, that it’s almost a pretty easy decision because there’s so much backing and support from the community that we have here at USF.”
Plastic pollution is found in almost all corners of the world, even at the deepest depths of the Marianna trench. There are an estimated 8 million metric tons of plastic that enter the ocean every year. The pollution that exists today is expected to remain for hundreds of years.
Other colleges have implemented environmentally friendly practices that USF may adopt.
Eckerd College in St. Petersburg was one of the first higher education institutions to carry out a single-use plastic-free campus in Florida. McClurg explained at Eckerd, student organizations do not receive compensation for products made of plastic, a powerful incentive to buy reusable materials for student meetings.
There are already many opportunities to recycle on the USF campus and have been small moves forward to use more biodegradable products like paper straws at the Marshal Student Center.
However, greater steps can be taken. Consider the plastic utensil dispenser available at most dining locations on campus. Eckerd college’s solution is to hand out reusable and portable utensils to the student body. This solution reduces the college’s carbon footprint and also encourages the individual to take those practices and apply them in their own lives.
Businesses on the USF campus would have to adjust if this ban were to be implemented. Packaging would have to be reevaluated for most products, which has the potential to limit consumer choice.
Eckerd College has 2,000 students enrolled compared with more than 50,000 at USF’s three campuses These dramatic changes would be quite a challenge for the USF supply change.
McClurg claims that these alternatives can be quite affordable. Containers made from biodegradable sugarcane fiber and corn PTA, that last for a month or two, can be purchased for less than conventional plastic containers.
A change like this would be difficult for any large institution, but if there is ever to be a change in plastic production in the country, McClurg argues that it should begin the university level.
“You have people who come here who really want to promote change and you know, continue their education to better their futures and perhaps their environmental futures,” said McClurg.
