Tara Van Hoorn is an intern with the International Marine Mammal Project of Earth Island Institute and majors in Conservation Resource Studies at the University of California, Berkeley.
Plastic Solo cups, marketed as “The Original Sign of Good Times”, have dominated college culture since their emergence in the 1970s as the “perfect party cup”. However, due to the growing intensity of the global climate crisis, these cups may be reaching their final days, and a group of University of California Berkeley students is leading the charge.
The UC Berkeley Surfrider Foundation Club, in affiliation with the international marine conservation nonprofit, Surfrider, recently announced that UC Berkeley student groups use (and throw out) more than 200,000 plastic cups annually. As one plastic Solo cup takes 450 years to decompose in a landfill, UC Berkeley alone is creating thousands of pounds of long-lasting garbage each year. Much of this trash does not even reach landfills, ends up in our oceans, and poses a deadly threat to marine animals that accidentally consume it.
As our oceans face countless dangers from climate change and human destruction, we’re learning that many environmental issues are difficult to solve on the individual scale. Yet, one's plastic use and waste production is completely controlled by oneself, making it simple to help protect our oceans by opting for re-usables and reducing plastic packaging. The UC Berkeley club has used this individualist approach by working to end local marine degradation in many ways, but its recent campaign is not just protecting the ocean, it is changing college culture.
These students have found reasonable and low maintenance alternatives to the looming and pernicious Solo cup. Last spring, the club launched its “No Solo” campaign with hopes of making “bring your own cup” parties the new trend. By partnering with BGreenToday, a compostable cup company, the club has begun to sell both compostable and reusable cups to various campus groups hosting social events. Instead of buying Solo cups to throw away the next day, campus groups can simply buy compostable alternatives directly from the club itself (who will both deliver and pick up used cups to be taken to appropriate composting facilities). Along with its composting solution, the club offers completely reusable stainless steel cups, complete with the Surfrider “#NoSolo” label.
The club even offers a “Rent-a-Cup” program in which student groups can rent a set of reusable cups for their event then simply return them to the club who will then wash and reuse them again and again. Various campus groups have begun to make the switch from plastic to sustainable cups, partnering with the club by pledging to host events using one of Surfrider’s cup options. The club’s co-president, Mia Silverberg, explains that Surfrider members are simply trying to ingrain sustainability into the currently wasteful everyday college culture: “When I came to Cal as a freshman, I was disgusted by the mountains of plastic cups tossed out by fraternities every weekend. #NoSolo is a movement to stop this. It is past time we recognize our responsibility as citizens of the Earth, to choose sustainability over convenience”.
Overuse of single-use plastics is not the only thing threatening the oceans, and it is not the only focus of the club. Besides the “No Solo” campaign, the club is involved in numerous other projects that encourage community education and activism for marine conservation. Each month, a group of club members do a beach clean-up at a beach in the Bay Area collecting thousands of pieces of trash (with reusable buckets and gloves of course). Many club members also participate in BASIS (Bay Area Science in Schools) to teach local elementary students about marine science and conservation.
Its newest “Ocean-Friendly Foods” campaign focuses on replacing harmful and wasteful agricultural restaurant practices, like pesticides and nutrient-rich synthetic fertilizers, with sustainable agriculture and reusable restaurant alternatives. Members volunteer at local organic urban farms to learn about ocean-friendly farming as well as working with local restaurants to reduce their waste.
Moving towards sustainability does come at a cost, and many students are deterred by the higher prices of compostable and reusable cups. Therefore, the club relies on donations to both purchase and subsidize the cups to make them affordable for students and put them to use on the Cal campus.
Help eliminate the massive plastic flow from campus, promote sustainability on college campuses, and save our oceans by donating today. Contact the club through one of the links below to find out how you can help.
On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/calsurfrider/
On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/calsurfrider/
Photos courtesy UC Berkeley Surfriders Foundation.