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February 11, 2010 | Vol. 5, No. 10
By Anna Sarkissian
Gabriel Boodoo, an employee of Distinction Maintenance Services – contracted by the university to collect recycling – holds up coffee cups skimmed from the tops of blue bins in the Hall Building on Feb. 5.
Last year, Concordians tossed 3.9 million disposable coffee cups. That amounts to 75 per student.
Equally troubling is the fact that people think that the cups are recyclable, says Faisal Shennib, coordinator of R4 Concordia – Rethink, Reduce/Reuse, Recycle.
In response, R4 is unveiling a new awareness campaign to educate people about recyclables on campus. Their plan includes new signage near the bins, classroom presentations, posters, tabling and information on the plasma screens. They are also planning to revive their Lug-a-mug program.
Because of their plastic lining, coffee cups must be thrown out. The lids, which sometimes have an embossed recycling logo to indicate that they are made of post-consumer content, must also be dumped since they are made of type 6 plastic.
Right now, blue bins around campus are being contaminated with coffee cups which often contain leftover liquids.
“It makes life difficult for those who collect the contents. It’s extremely messy,” says Shennib.
While coffee cups are the biggest issue, he says they will also try to clear up other misconceptions. Soiled pizza boxes are not recyclable, nor are crinkly plastic wrappers. Juice and milk cartons, also known as Tetra Paks, should be recycled with plastic and glass, not paper.
In a perfect world, we would reduce our consumption of packaging, Shennib adds. People have gotten used to the convenience of take out food and individually wrapped snacks.
“We’re trying to move away from ultra-convenience and toward concern for the environment,” he says, noting that we have already seen a big change with reusable bags at supermarkets. Since it takes extra effort to carry your own mug and wash it after each use, he calls it a lifestyle decision.
“We need an ideological change. It has to be pervasive. If you see it all around you, it’s easier to make the switch.”
Shennib is looking at the possibility of asking campus cafés to charge a 10-cent fee for disposable cups to discourage their use or starting a mug-sharing program that people would buy into – think of it as Bixi for coffee lovers.
Find out more about recyclables. To get involved in R4’s campaign, look up Sustainable Concordia on Facebook and visit the event page for Don’t Break the Cycle! Coffee Cups are Not Recyclable!. (You must have a Facebook account.)
BYO mug and save big
Page Title: Capping coffee cup use - Concordia University - Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Page URL:http://cjournal.concordia.ca/archives/20100211/capping_coffee_cup_use.php ...p_use.php
Date Printed: Sat December 21, 2024
