Earth-friendly mugs

Peg Skorpinski photo

26 September 2001 | American Studies student Kathy Dang, a junior, accepts a reusable mug from Ryan Buckley, a student organizer for the campuswide Recycling Week, Sept. 10-15. Some 5,500 mugs were distributed to students, who will get a 10-cent discount every time they use their mug, instead of a disposable paper cup, for drinks purchased at campus-operated restaurants.

Mug Day kicked off the five-day recycling education blitz, spotlighted recycling, re-use, and waste reduction. The mug program was “incredibly well received by the students,” said Lisa Bauer, manager of Campus Recycling and Refuse Services. “It’s obvious that this is an idea whose time has come.”

In an informal audit — conducted by sorting the waste found in campus trash cans — Campus Recycling found that 40 percent of the garbage, by volume, was disposable coffee cups. “If you had 20,000 students and they each had a cup of coffee a day, 250 days per year, you are looking at 5 million cups a year,” said Bauer. “It’s really a frightening thought.”