The Colby Echo

Issue date: 2/16/07 Section: News & Features

Media Credit: Molly Warren

Dining Services, in conjunction with the Environmental Advisory Group, has decided to start a reusable mug program in all three dining halls, beginning in early March.

The idea was originally presented by Dining Services in an effort to prevent lost china cups throughout the year and to remain environmentally sustainable. "We need to replace roughly 2,600 to 3,000 china mugs a year in order to sustain our supply. That is $12,000 a year," Assistant Director of Dining Services Joe Klaus said, "So the question became how do we eliminate this issue and still be environmentally conscious?"
"We understand we're in Maine and it's cold and people will want a beverage to go," Director of Dining Services Varun Avasthi said. When the program begins there will no longer be paper cups in the dining halls. Instead, students will be given the option of taking out a reusable plastic mug and when they return to a dining hall they will be able to drop the dirty cup in a window to be washed and made available for future use. The mugs will be made equally available to every student, "not just in Foss because it's perceived as the earthy, crunchy place," Avasthi said, "If students want to hang on to the mug and keep it that would be the ultimate goal."

"If we make the program work it will develop a habit in students that extends beyond the college years-the habit of using a reusable mug instead of throwing something in the trash," Klaus said.
Neither Klaus nor Avasthi are aware of the program being successful at any other school. Bates College tried a similar program unsuccessfully and Avasthi thinks part of the problem was that drop boxes for dirty mugs were placed throughout the school, and not just in the dining halls. "Now they can't make them go away, they are eye sores and they have had pest problems," Avasthi said, "Our whole purpose in doing this with the dining halls is to wash mugs and not have boxes lying all over the place. Who would be responsible for collecting?"

Avasthi and Klaus hope that the program is successful. "I think it will showcase once again how the College and the students are really aware of this stuff [environmental issues]. We hear about Bates being a disaster, hopefully we can show that our students are better than that," Klaus said.

Dining Services is in the process of working on a list of environmental initiatives, some already in place. "We at Colby continue to be leading not only in Maine, but amongst a lot of colleges, and we are moving very fast in the dining services side in an environmental direction," Avasthi said.

Some of the other initiatives being improved and implemented are food composting, recycling programs, local and organic purchasing, and disposing of oil by giving it to a local farmer who converts it into biodiesel.

"The EAG is impressed that Dining Services took the initiative to start this program and we admire their continual dedication to environment," Becky Lipson '09, a student representative on the EAG, said.

Avasthi is confident that once students understand the reusable mug program they will be on-board with it. "You don't need to be a super environmental person to understand the basics of this," he said.

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