Bill Hardgrave, dean of the Raymond J. Harbert College of Business, is making his college Styrofoam-free one ceramic mug at a time.
Tiger Dining, the Office of Sustainability and the Waste Reduction and Recycling department eliminated all Styrofoam products from on-campus dining areas in August.
The College of Business followed suit when Hardgrave replaced all Styrofoam cups in the Lowder break room with individual mugs for staff and faculty.
According to Jeff Long, chief operation officer at the College of Business,the change from Styrofoam cups to mugs will save the college and estimated $3,000 per year.
"We did an analysis that showed that we were spending a couple of thousands of dollars a year buying Styrofoam cups," Long said. "We have 150 staff and faculty here in the building, and at any given day we could easily go through 250-300 cups."
The mugs cost $5, so the switch cost the college $700.
The process of making Styrofoam releases toxic chemicals into the air, according to Courtney Washburn, recycling coordinator at the waste reduction and recycling department.
"Making Styrofoam cups in itself is a pretty dirty process that uses chemicals that have been known to cause health issues," Washburn said.
Cheryl Woodard, Outreach program specialist for the College of Business, said this change is a great way to save money while impacting the environment positively.
"I love the fact that dean Hardgrave saw the amount of money the college had been spending on paper coffee cups," Woodard said. "I believe in an effort to save money and the environment, he chooses to give everyone in the college a coffee mug, which I think is great. It's great to know that our dean cares about the environment."
Marketing instructor Jasmine Le said she enjoys the mugs for several reasons.
"I prefer having my own cup so I can always be sure it's clean," Le said. "Also, if you have a guest and you want to offer them a cup of coffee or hot tea they can drink out of a nice, fancy cup instead of a Styrofoam cup."
Long said he hopes the switch to Styrofoam cups will inspire other colleges on campus to make the same changes.
"There has been a push on campus [to remove Styrofoam], and we were feeding off that idea of doing the right thing for the environment," Long said. "I think, hopefully, that when other colleges read about this, they'll start looking at their own costs of what they are spending on Styrofoam cups."
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