Hello Ladies!
"UMD initiates new composting program," was the title of an article in the Statesmen on campus. In the picture, the girl that is throwing away her compostable
coffee cup is the leader of the Environmental Task Force that I'm on for MPIRG. She and I as well as others did a trash audit of what recyclables are being thrown in the regular trash bins. Suprisingly enough, the biggest amount of recyclables being wasted wasn't aluminum cans, water bottles, or paper. It's was the compostable products from the UMD coffee shop!!!!
This is a picture that was collected from out trash audit, containing things only from the coffee shop. One thing I learned is that the plastic cups for smoothies and iced coffee drinks are also compostable! I think that's just amazing that human beings are smart enough to find a way to make plastic compostable.
The Statesmen mentioned that, "in 2009, the coffee shop was estimated to give out roughly around 250,000 disposable cups per year." Let me emphasize that this was cups alone! The coffee shop switched to 100% biodegradable cups and lids, but they're compostable and need a bin to be thrown in that's designated for composting. Not only are the cups and lids biodegradeable through composting but so are the cutlery and plates!
I used to thing that biodegradable-compostable products could do their environmental benefits by just breaking down in the garbage landfills......NOT TRUE. There is a method that
composting follows and it requires action on our part to throw these things in the rights bins, so the people that compost them can take care of the rest of the process. For the coffee cups, lids, cutlery, plastic looking cups, and plates in this case, they need to be put into the new big yellow bucket outside of the coffee shop in order to produce the environmental benefits they were designed to!
Message for this blog:
Put coffee shop compostable products in the yellow bin outside the coffee shop.
We could save up to 250,000 cups alone from a land fill!
Hi Shannon
ReplyDeleteIt's really great that the university is taking the appropriate steps to a more environmental friendly atmosphere. Do you know if the same holds true for the disposables up in the food court as far as being compostable? If so will there be bins readily available up in the food court area as well?
Shannon,
ReplyDeleteThis is a great post! I never knew that pretty much everything in the coffee shop was biodegradable, I also never knew there was a process that we all need to follow in order for the biodegrading process to work. If everyone in school, or even a greater portion of people knew where to properly dispose of their coffee cups and such it would save so much unnecessary waste! It was an interesting fact that water bottles didn't make up the most non-recycled waste, but products from the coffee shop. Jeesh.
This is such an interesting topic! It doesn't make much sense to make compostable glasses and lids only for them to be throw in the trash with everything else. I wonder if people who purchase drinks at the coffee shop are aware that they are compostable? I think that is there was a bin that people could throw them in that it would make a huge difference.
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