Lights on Laurentians: Is St. Lawrence Low-Waste Friendly?

In a casual conversation with friends, I mentioned how the amount of waste we as humans make bothers me. Living in a time when commodities are at our fingertips is a great thing to many, but not as much thought is given to how those means reach us.

As we tossed the question around and thought about it in terms of our campus, I decided to pose an experiment: could I produce little-to-zero trash for one week here on campus? Disclaimer: I am not an environmental or sustainability student and claim no scientific, empirical knowledge of this topic. But, I am someone who just wants to leave things a little better than I found it.

I have always done my best to buy reused clothes, decline a plastic bag in the grocery line and be wary of plastic bottles. But for one week, my and my friend’s goal was to produce little to no trash at all. That meant no plastic or glass (even if it could be recycled) no plastic packaging, no paper waste, no microbeads and the least amount of food waste we could make that wasn’t compostable.

Spoiler alert: I failed after three days. But here is what I learned.

 

On Campus:     

Our biggest issue on campus was going to be food consumption. If you want to lessen your waste on campus, Dana is a good option. The food is in bulk, not packaged, and with reusable silverware and cups, it makes the most sense.

I opted to eat my more nutrient-dense meals like dinner or lunch, where I might have more vegetables and fruit, at Dana for the sake of forgoing my plastic foes, like the salads in plastic containers at the Pub. I’m a big Pub girl, and after a few failed attempts to use a reusable container to have my Pub order placed in (the paper containers that food is generally served in is coated in wax and cannot, by my inquiries, be recycled), my partner in the experiment learned it is a health concern, and we cannot use reusable containers for Pub orders. Considering I am on the Weekly 7 plan, the paper Pub containers were unavoidable.

Additionally, a number of my favorite goodies, like the pieces of bread and knots from the Potsdam Co-op, were also wrapped in plastic, so those were out for me, and I opted for waste-free fruit instead. It’s no Southwestern knot, but still tasty.

One thing I did habitually that I hadn’t noticed was using small condiment containers for things like hot sauce. While they are recyclable, I have only ever seen them tossed in the trash with the Pub containers. So next time, try just putting your ketchup or hot sauce on your food or just in the corner of your Pub order.

There are a number of very simple swaps that can be helpful for places like the Pub. Reusable mugs/cups for coffee are among the simplest, and the cleanup process for rinsing out your travel mug is infinitely smaller in time than it is for that plastic cup to breakdown on its own, if ever.

Another great option is reusable silverware and straws. I purchased a bamboo utensil set over two years ago from Nature’s Storehouse. It costs approximately $10.95, and it has made a huge difference in my plastic both on campus and while I was abroad. They are easy, lightweight and just helpful in moving around the world in a little more conscious way.

An already popular option as well is reusable water bottles, which are pretty easy to come by at some point in your SLU career. Also, try to utilize the recycling and compost options in the Pub located on the lower level near the doors to Johnson Hall of Science. The bins are specifically labeled for recyclables and things that you can compost from your Pub meal.

 

In the Dorm:

There were a few things that I was not willing to compromise my no-waste week for; medication was one of them. While doing this experiment, I learned to think about things in terms of a tradeoff. For example, if I take supplements and birth-control now that come in plastic, it will 1) keep me healthy and out of the hospital or in need of other medication that makes more waste and 2) from not creating another human that then increases the amount of waste required to raise said human.

There are caveats to this, like buying vitamins or medications in larger amounts so they come in less packaging, but it was something I was not totally willing to compromise, but at my best, be conscious of.

Alcohol is another item that I ran into issues with in terms of waste production, and this is something I was willing to compromise on. Instead of alcohol in plastic bottles like handles, which can only be actually recycled once or twice, I opted for things in glass containers or aluminum.

According to Earth911.com, both metals and glass can be recycled an infinite amount of times, and it is actually easier to produce new packaging from recycled glass and metal than to make them brand new. So, raise those spiked seltzer cans and Bud Light glass bottles, just make sure the day after they are lightly rinsed out and in their proper bins!

Lastly, snacks in the dorm were also something I was willing to compromise on. In giving up things packaged in plastic, I was forced to only have fresher items of food, mostly fruit and veggie options secretly smuggled out of Dana.

Nonetheless, in my little time as an attempted no-waster, I did feel less sluggish from processed food than I would have typically snacked on. I also ended up making some food in advance and storing it in containers in my fridge, so if I was genuinely hungry I had healthier options that didn’t need to be unwrapped, and thus made a little less waste. This isn’t an option for everyone, but taking some food to go with you from Dana is a simple step.

 

On the town:

There are a few things I picked up while doing this experiment that made my shopping around Canton and Potsdam a little more waste conscious. The basic things of reusable bags, carpooling and eating in at restaurants to avoid takeout containers are a few.

Places like Aldi’s are a good option for grocery shopping, as the prices are significantly lower and they don’t give you plastic bags to put your groceries in. You can use a recycled cardboard pallet from their shelf to carry your goods out, or, easy enough, just bring your own bags. You can also save plastic bags from previous trips and use them over and over again to start being a little more conscious of your waste. Single-use plastic isn’t actually single-use, as I learned.

Additionally, if you are really into the no-waste effort, Nature’s Storehouse offers a number of bulk items like spices and herbs if you have your own containers to bring. While this wasn’t feasible for me, I did utilize the store for things like beeswax wraps that can help keep food fresh and are reusable, as well as recommendations from the owners on how to shop more efficiently for myself and for the environment.

 

Takeaways:

While I didn’t make it an entire week producing no-waste, my understanding of my own carbon footprint and what waste I am leaving behind did increase a great deal. There are also a number of things here I didn’t mention like menstrual products, clothing, home goods, and more that have less wasteful options.

I also want to make a disclaimer that these options and things I have suggested are not for everyone. Some folks don’t have the money to spend on utensils or reusable bags. Some people with motor issues need plastic straws to eat and drink. Social and economic inequality creates food deserts where the only reliable food sources are packaged, processed foods.

Some food may contain airborne allergens, and they have to be packaged for people’s safety. Sometimes our days are so packed with meetings and deadlines that just making it to the end of the day is an accomplishment in itself, whether or not you have left some waste behind.

We all want to get somewhere after graduating from SLU that allows us to live out our passions and give us the life we always wanted. But right now, planet earth is the only place to do that, and we are not treating it remotely how we should be.

It starts with questioning why we make incredibly durable materials that are only used once, like plastic utensils. Think critically about how SLU as an institution is investing millions of dollars from your tuition money into the fossil fuel industry. Critique how our current consumer culture has made shopping mindless, cheap, wasteful and unequal to people in economic and social circumstances that we have constructed to be “normal.”

We aren’t going to able to use those degrees we are currently crying and stressing over if we don’t have a healthy planet to live on. If St. Lawrence is so bent upon making us “global citizens,” then it should start including how we act as citizens to a quickly destabilizing globe, and what responsibility we need to hold as well as what ideologies and systems SLU upholds that need to be critiqued.

So today, try thinking about how you can question your mindset and disposition on consumer culture. We may all be better from it.