Plastic waste and reusable alternatives to plastic wares have been rather hot topics in recent years. They were so hot that they roused people of all ages and statuses to start acting to make a better change. College students played and continue to play a particularly important role in this movement.
Whether you are an environmental enthusiast yourself or a beginner who wants to make a change, we’ve got a few stories to inspire your action. So drop your homework assignments and boring papers by delegating them to a reliable graduate school essay writing service, and continue reading to learn more about the plastic waste issue and the role college students play in the reusable drinkware movement!
Contents
Why Is Plastic a Major Problem Today?
Despite the hefty environmental issues facing us these days, plastic waste remains one of the most pressing ones. The reason for this is that the impact of plastic waste stretches far further than the consequences of any other kind of waste. Plastic can pollute deep ocean trenches and high mountain tops, affect wildlife, and destroy entire ecosystems. On top of that, it’s long known that the lifespan of plastic products is quite extensive – 10 years or so, meaning that our global waste of such products can indeed take hundreds of years to decompose. Until then, it will keep affecting our health and environment.
To complicate matters, the production and waste of plastic products keep growing at a progression. The latest numbers from Statista are terrifying:
- The global plastic production exceeds 400 million metric tons annually.
- The waste constitutes 398.9 million metric tons this year and is projected to reach 1,014.1 million metric tons by 2060.
Currently, only 15% of plastic is recycled. This means even more tons of waste, millions of species endangered, and irreversible effects on human health in the foreseeable future.
The solution? Reusable products to replace disposable ones.
Why Should We Focus on Drinkware, in Particular?
Although there are many different types of plastic products, goods that fall into the beverage packaging cause the most waste worldwide. Namely, bottle and container caps stand for 15.5% of waste. Disposable beverage bottles and cups make up 7.27%. Additionally, plastic straws cause a lot of waste.
However, if we replace all these products with reusable drinkware, we could cut down the amount of waste significantly.
How College Students Are Contributing to Reusable Drinkware Popularization
Although the plastic waste issue must be pressing and relevant to everyone, and many people of different ages are actually contributing to solving it, we can see a significant impact of young generations on making a change. During this decade, we can observe more environmentally conscious college students than ever before.
Let’s recognize some of the biggest and most impactful student movements to help you find inspiration to start acting, too:
Kill the Cup
Kill the Cup is one of the first-ever college students’ initiatives regarding reusable drinkware. It is also one of the most famous. The campaign was invented by Drew Beal in 2013. At that time, Drew was going through an MBA program. The inspiration for this initiative was drawn from Drew watching lots of people going to school, college, and work every morning and getting themselves a cup of coffee… and, oh well, throwing their disposable cups away, causing plenty of waste.
The concept of the campaign was very simple. Kill the Cup was a social-media-inspired game that encouraged participants to switch to reusable cups, take selfies with them, and win rewards. In 2015, the idea grew into a huge, US-wide contest, “Kill the Cup University Challenge.” Throughout a four-week contest, students, as well as schools’ faculty and staff, were ditching disposable cups and taking selfies to compete for a whopping $5,000 reward in grants.
The results were quite impressive. Drew and the team partnered with campus-based coffee shops to measure the outcomes. After only eight weeks, there was a triple-bottom-line increase – the waste was reduced, coffee shops gained more profits, and college communities became much more aware and excited about sustainability.
UTokyo GX Student Network (GXSN)
GXSN is another example of students pioneering the reusable drinkware movement. The organization was founded in 2021 by a group of environmental enthusiasts from the University of Tokyo. The primary mission of this student organization is to spread awareness and foster a culture of sustainability within their campus, though they are hoping to catalyze further positive changes beyond their college, too.
Currently, this student-run organization already juggles multiple projects at once. First and foremost, students from GXSN conduct research and provide relevant theoretical and practical education to their fellow students and the college’s staff. Additionally, the organization is engaged in:
- Increasing plant-based food options on campus;
- Nature-positive university planning;
- Running a community garden, etc.
Among a huge variety of initiatives and activities, one of the biggest campaigns run by this organization is related to reusable drinkware. The group of students is actively installing water servers across the UTokyo campus. The core aim of placing refilling water stations is to let their fellow students ditch plastic water bottles and start using their reusable bottles more easily and more conveniently instead. Throughout several years, the organization has already installed 10+ water servers and achieved their frequent use by students. And GXSN isn’t going to stop there.
2 Million Bottle Challenge Mount Allison University
The 2 Million Bottle Challenge actually wasn’t a student initiative. It was launched by Hydro Flask – an award-winning brand that produces high-performance stainless steel flasks. Still, though the challenge itself was organized by a brand, students played a massive role in it, pushing forward the reusable drinkware movement.
The challenge launched for college campuses in the US and Canada in fall 2022. Students were encouraged to bring their reusable bottles and refill them on campus at special stations and fountains. Then, using the Tap app, Hydro Flask ambassadors collected the data from refill stations and calculated the number of plastic bottles saved during the contest.
Mount Allison University was announced to be the winner of the challenge in Spring 2023. The school’s students approached the challenge with great enthusiasm and gladly ditched plastic bottles for the sake of a positive change.
The Bottom Line
These days, college students are much more environmentally concerned than ever. Studies reveal that as many as 70% of students are willing to learn more about sustainability. Moreover, they are actually willing to act and stimulate change. In this decade, we can observe more environmentally conscious college students than ever before. For further insights, view more.
Over the past decade, we’ve seen many great initiatives pioneered by college students. College activists are leading cruelty-free cosmetics, sustainability, and many other environmental campaigns. And now, you also know that students play a significant role in eliminating plastic waste and popularizing reusable drinkware.
Hopefully, the student stories we shared with you here will inspire and motivate you to start making a change, too. Remember that our planet is what we all have in common, and we must protect it!