Amanda Czeslaw, Sydne Hunter, Courtney Klecha ... Czeslaw, Sydne Hunter, Courtney Klecha...
Transcript of Amanda Czeslaw, Sydne Hunter, Courtney Klecha ... Czeslaw, Sydne Hunter, Courtney Klecha...
The Osprey Mug Initiative: The Green Way to Enjoy Your Favorite Beverages
Project Proposal
Amanda Czeslaw, Sydne Hunter, Courtney Klecha Environmental Sustainability (SUST 2100)
Tait Chirenje The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey
Fall 2014
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Table of Contents
I. Mission Statement................................................................................................................3 II. Abstract................................................................................................................................3
III. Statement of Need................................................................................................................3 IV. Statement of Interest............................................................................................................4 V. Action Plan...........................................................................................................................4
VI. Project Rationale..................................................................................................................5 A. Reduces Plastic in the Environment B. Lowers Customer Cost C. Business for the Bookstore D. Community Influence E. School Pride and Promotion
VII. Action Plan……………………………………………………………………………..7 VIII. Detailed Project Description…………………………………………………………….7
A. Goal B. Finances C. Timeline D. Resources E. Success
VIII. Reusable Mug Implementation Examples………………………………………………9 A. The Bean’s List B. Dunkin’ Donuts Implementation C. Boston University Reusable Mug Program
IX. References……………………………………………………………………………….11 X. Appendix………………………………………………………………………………..12
A. Hot Mug Order Form B. Cold Mug Order Form C. Copy of Survey
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Mission Statement
Our mission is to aid Stockton College in meeting its goals for sustainability on campus.
We intend to do so by reducing the amount of paper and plastic cup waste produced by the
school’s food and beverage vendors, which can be accomplished by replacing these cups with
reusable “Osprey Mugs” sold in the school Bookstore.
Abstract
The goal of this project is to implement policies into the Galloway campus dining
locations to allow students to purchase beverages in reusable mugs. The Bean’s List, a food and
beverage retailer in the Academic building, already allows customers to bring their own mugs to
be refilled at a fixed price. We aim to have a similar initiative installed in all dining locations on
campus, including the Campus Center Food Court and the N-Wing Student Restaurant. If there
were a policy that allowed customers to hand over a reusable mug to be filled with beverages, the
number of paper and plastic cups wasted would decrease dramatically. For pricing purposes, we
wish to standardize the size of “eligible” mugs by limiting them to a specific type sold by the
school bookstore. We have decided to call these mugs “Osprey Mugs.” There will be discounted
prices for beverages dispensed into Osprey Mugs, as incentive for students to use them. The
umbrella company for dining services at Stockton, Chartwells, has already agreed to a flat-rate
fee of $1.19 for the refill of any medium or large reusable mug with hot coffee or tea. Medium or
large mugs are any mugs that hold more fluid ounces than the designated “small” size of coffee
at a vendor. Osprey Mugs fall in this category for most eateries on campus. Discount prices for
other beverages, including iced coffee, soft drinks, and specialty drinks, are still in the works.
Once protocols are in place with the vendors, we will sell 200 mugs to students for $1.00 each to
encourage the program. After that, they will be available for purchase at the original retail price
in the Bookstore.
Statement of Need
In order to examine the necessity of reusable mugs on campus, let’s look at how the
Stockton community purchases coffee. Coffee, one of the most prominent beverages in America,
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was sold in 14.4 billion disposable cups over the past year. Placed end-to-end, these cups could
wrap around the earth 55 times (“De-cup your decaf,” 2012). At Stockton, the Dunkin’ Donuts
located in the campus center is by far the most popular place to get coffee. There is a plastic
liner located within Dunkin’ Donuts’ disposable paper cups that prevents the cups from being
recycled. Instead, they must be burned or buried in a landfill. In addition to these paper cups,
Dunkin’ Donuts uses clear plastic cups for its iced coffees. These cups are made from plastic that
falls under the recycling code number 5, and which cannot be recycled by many
“curbside-recycling programs” (Hudson, 2013). In fact, none of the cups from Stockton’s
Dunkin’ Donuts can be recycled by the Atlantic County Utilities Authority. The cups and their
lids are dumped in a landfill in Egg Harbor Township. Once in the landfill, the different plastics
in the cups and lids can take hundreds of years to break down.
Stockton College, proclaimed as one of the greenest colleges in America, needs to take
action to end the short cycle of manufacturer to consumer to landfill that occurs on its campus
hundreds of times a day when people purchase drinks. The College can use the Osprey Mug
Initiative to help its students live functionally but sustainably.
Statement of Interest
To get an idea of whether or not Stockton students were interested in a reusable mug
program, we conducted a survey of sixty students. All student levels were represented, from
freshmen to graduate students, and we focused on the purchase of coffee and tea. When asked
how often they purchase coffee or tea (hot or cold) on campus, almost half of those surveyed
responded either “daily” or “more than once daily.” When asked where they are most likely to
purchase their coffee or tea, 62% indicated Dunkin’ Donuts on the form.
An overwhelming 90% of students surveyed said that they would be interested in a
school-issued reusable mug. Another encouraging fact is that even students who indicated that
they had never before considered carrying a reusable mug answered “yes,” that they were
interested in receiving such a mug. When students were asked what they considered to be the
drawbacks of reusable mugs, the most common response was that the mugs are a hassle to carry
around. However, when asked whether, with the offer of a discount for using a mug, they would
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actually carry one, 62% of students said that they would “definitely carry one.” Another 27%
stated that they would be “likely” to carry one. It seems that the incentive of a discount, along
with what those surveyed indicated as benefits of using a reusable mug (the most common of
which was that the mugs are better for the environment than disposable cups) must outweigh the
hassle of carrying one. All in all, student response to the idea was largely positive, and we can
expect a great deal of interest and support from the student population if this proposal becomes a
reality.
Project Rationale
A. Reduces Plastic in the Environment: The disposable coffee containers being sold
currently by the Stockton Dunkin’ Donuts are unsustainable and very environmentally
detrimental. For a college that touts its sustainable practices, Stockton is certainly not
living up to its words by allowing hundreds of non-recyclable cups to be distributed,
briefly used, and then disposed of every day across its campus.
The campus Dunkin’ Donuts uses hot coffee cups produced by International
Paper. They are made of paper, but they are coated on the inside with a plastic called
polyethylene. This plastic lining prevents the cups from being recycled, as they tend to
clog the screens used in the recycling process (Luna, 2013). When the cups are inevitably
thrown in landfills, the polyethylene cannot biodegrade. The plastic can, with sun
exposure, break down into extremely small pieces, but soil microorganisms cannot
convert it into a form that is useful in the environment. Therefore, the plastic simply
remains in the soil in tiny pieces indefinitely (Koutny et al, 2006).
Each cup comes with a flat-topped lid made of rigid polystyrene. Most are more
familiar with this type of plastic in its foam form, marketed as Styrofoam. The Atlantic
County Utilities Authority (ACUA) does not recycle polystyrene in any form, meaning
that the lids, along with the cups, are also bound for the landfill (“How do I dispose
of…,” 2014).
The cold beverage cups sold at Dunkin’ Donuts are manufactured by the Dart
Container Corporation. The cups and their lids are made of a clear plastic called
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polyethylene terephthalate, commonly abbreviated as PETE. Although PETE falls under
plastic recycling code number 1, meaning it is easily recyclable, the ACUA does not
recycle materials that have been contaminated by food. Therefore, these plastic cups will
end up in the environment with all the others.
If a student buys one cup of coffee or tea every day during the fall and spring
semesters, he or she is throwing out approximately 200 plastic or plastic-coated cups per
academic year. If that student began using an Osprey Mug, up to 200 cups could be saved
from the local landfill. That’s just from one student switching to a reusable mug. If even a
portion of all students who purchase coffee daily (almost half of the sample population)
utilized an osprey mug, the amount of plastic kept out of the landfill would be significant.
B. Lowers Customer Cost: Chartwells has agreed to a price of $1.19 for any reusable mug
that is larger than the designated “small” size (usually ten or twelve ounces) of hot coffee
or tea at any given vendor. Any mug that holds the same amount of fluid ounces as the
“small” size will be discounted at 20% off the original price. Osprey Mugs will be 16
ounces.
C. Business for the Bookstore: We will be purchasing an initial round of mugs from the
school Bookstore to be sold for a promotional price of $1.00. As Osprey Mugs become
popular on campus, the Bookstore will see more and more students coming in to buy
them at full price. This will lead to an increase in business for the store, and therefore an
increase in revenue.
D. Community Influence: Stockton frequents local and regional newspapers, and the
college is often seen as a pioneer in sustainability. The Osprey Mug Initiative could easily
spread to other New Jersey colleges such as Atlantic Cape Community College, Rowan
University, and Rutgers University. Chartwells could also be instrumental in helping
reusable mug programs move beyond Stockton. The company could offer the option of
reusable mugs to any facility to which it provides dining services. The Osprey Mug
program could be one more way that Stockton positively influences the community.
E. School Pride and Promotion: Every Osprey Mug will also be printed with the Stockton
logo. Students at the college love to show off their Stockton gear, and the Mugs will
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certainly foster school pride. When carried off-campus, they will also bring Stockton- and
its sustainability initiatives- into conversations that promote the school.
Action Plan
There is a hot/cold beverage travel mug with the Stockton logo on it already being sold in
the Bookstore. We hope to market these as Osprey Mugs. To kick off the project, we will buy
200 of these mugs from the Bookstore at a discounted price. Retail price in the store is $11.95
per mug, but the Bookstore will take off 25%. We will sell these mugs from a table in the campus
center for $1.00 to get them in circulation. This will serve to publicize the initiative and also get
students excited about Osprey Mugs. If the promotion is successful and the mugs go too fast, we
will purchase 100 more from the Bookstore.
The most important determining factor in the success of this project is student and faculty
awareness. To increase awareness, there will be promotional messages on the television
screensavers across the campus along with an announcement flyer uploaded to the Stockton “Go
portal” announcement link. We will have small signs printed and placed on the tables around
campus eateries and at the registers of all vendors. There will also be an article about the plan
and its importance in the school paper, the “ARGO.”
Detailed Project Description
A. Goal: Our terminal goal is to reduce the amount of waste produced on Stockton campus.
We want to achieve this through individuals using a reusable cup instead of the
disposable cups given out by the vendors. In doing so we will achieve waste reduction on
campus and a smaller impact on the Egg Harbor Township landfill.
B. Finances: In total, we are asking for a budget of $3,500. Please refer to the following
table for the breakdown of all fees. We will be purchasing 200 Stockton University
Travel Tumblers from the Bookstore at a 25% discount off the retail price. We will be
selling these from a table for $1.00. We would also like to reserve money to buy 100
more of these mugs if the promotion is extremely successful. We will also be purchasing
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four posters at about $50.00 each. The leftover money will be used to purchase
additional marketing materials.
Item Amount Cost per unit Discount Total Cost
Mugs for Promotion
200 $11.95 25% $1,814.50
Additional Mugs (if necessary)
100 $11.95 25% $896.25
36” X 72” Posters
4 $50.00 N/A $200.00
Additional Advertising (small signs, table display)
$589.25
Total $3,500
C. Timeline: We hope to have this proposal fully implemented within a three month period
after it is approved by both our vendor, Chartwells, and our distributer, the Stockton
Bookstore. During the first three days of Week 1 of implementation, we will set up a
table in the Campus Center and distribute the $1.00 mugs. This table will display our plan
of what we are trying to accomplish and how everyone can help reduce our waste. The
cups that were not sold will be saved until Week 2, when we will again set up the table.
We will run this promotion during two different weeks so that the largest number of
individuals can see our display and understand why it is so important to help reduce
waste. Within the first three months, we will study the implementation of our proposal to
see if individuals are using the mugs. It is one thing to get them in the hands of our fellow
students, but we also need to see if they are using them effectively.
D. Resources: We will be purchasing the mugs to be used in the promotion from the
Stockton College Bookstore. After this initial promotion, students and faculty will be able
to purchase them directly from the bookstore for $11.95. Our distributer for the posters
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we will be using is the website www.makesigns.com. This website allows us to customize
text and pictures onto a 36” by 72” poster.
E. Success: The success of the implementation of our proposal will be measured in multiple
ways. At the end of the third month after implementation, we will run a customer
satisfaction survey. Working hand-in-hand with the bookstore during the first three
months is also key. We need to know how many Osprey Mugs are being sold. This gives
us an indication of how many people support the idea and want to take action with us. We
would also like to collaborate with Chartwells and have them keep tabs on how many
mugs they refill and how many disposable cups they distribute. These figures will allow
us calculate the progress of reduction of waste on campus. Working with vendors in these
first months will help us determine the success of the Osprey Mugs.
Reusable Mug Implementation Examples
A. The Bean’s List: This food and beverage vendor located in the main academic building
has a form of this implementation already in place. They refill any size reusable coffee
cup for $1.19. This policy has been in place for about 3 years.
B. University of Maryland: As cited in a similar University of Colorado proposal, the
University of Maryland has successfully implemented a reusable mug program in its
dining halls. In 2007, the University distributed 4,500 mugs to its students and reported
that 6,120 refills were purchased in November and December of that year (Marx, 2009).
C. University of Vermont: The University of Vermont implemented their own reusable
mug program with the addition of a charity fundraiser: each time an “eco-mug” is
purchased, $0.15 is donated to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (Marx, 2009).
D. Dunkin’ Donuts: Dunkin’ Donuts opened their first “green” restaurant in 2008 and their
second one in 2010. These buildings were constructed with green materials, efficient
lighting systems, and measures to increase water efficiency (DiMascio, 2014). These
were the first two Dunkin’ Donuts locations to start a reusable mug program; they
encourage customers to come in with a reusable mug to be filled at a reduced price.
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Today, many other Dunkin’ Donuts are participating in this program. This gives us hope
that our idea will really stick.
E. Boston University: Boston University has created a sustainability program that consists
of a committee, dining locations, and working groups such as building and facility
operations, a waste management team, communications, and energy conservation. This
large group of people pursue and promote sustainability at Boston University. Since
2009, Boston University has been promoting reusable mugs through their campaign
“De-cup Your Decaf.” They made it trendy to take pictures with reusable cups and post
them on social media, hashtagging the campaign name. Business all over the campus and
local hotspots offer discounts for the use of reusable cups. City Convenience, Boston
University’s popular convenience store, gives a $1 discount for a refill in a reusable cup.
Other vendors on campus take $0.25 off the price of their coffee (“Reusable Mug
Program,” 2014).
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References Clear PET cups. (n.d.). Retrieved November 2, 2014, from http://www.dartcontainer.com/web/products.nsf Collegiate Concepts. (n.d.). Retrieved November 20, 2014, from http://www.imprintitems.com De-cup your decaf. (2012, September 13). Retrieved November 20, 2014, from http://www.carbonrally.com/challenges/12-Paper-Coffee-Cups# DiMascio, M. (2012, April 22). A look insiDDe Dunkin' Donuts first LEED certified restaurant and recently opened green restaurant in St. Petersburg, Florida. Retrieved November 20, 2014, from http://www.dunkindonuts.com/DDBlog/2012/04/a_look_insidde_dunki.html#sthash.aRIeS2mm.UlRosy6R.dpbs How do I dispose of...? (n.d.). Retrieved November 7, 2014, from http://www.acua.com/wastewizard/ Howard, B. (n.d.). What plastic recycling codes mean. Retrieved November 2, 2014, from http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/home/green-living/recycling-symbols-plastics-460321#slide-6 Hudson, K. (2013, September 30). 5 Reasons To Kick Your Disposable Coffee Cup Habit For Good. Retrieved November 20, 2014, from http://www.organicauthority.com/sanctuary/5-reasons-to-kick-your-disposable-coffee-cup-habit-for-good.html Koutny, M., Lemaire, J., & Delort, A. (2006). Biodegradation of polyethylene films with prooxidant additives. Chemosphere, 64(8), 1243-1252. Retrieved November 19, 2014, from Science Direct. Luna, T. (2013, August 20). Amid criticism, Dunkin' moves to replace foam cups. The Boston Globe. Retrieved November 16, 2014, from http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2013/08/19/dunkin-donuts-introduces-paper-coffee-cups-brookline/yYwPbxr5DOFy0eifBZj7aM/story.html
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Marx, C., Kerr, C., San Filippo, D., Martin, P. (2009). Reusable Mugs for a Greener Campus: Replacing disposable drink containers with reusable mugs at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Retrieved from http://www.colorado.edu/envs/sites/default/files/attached-files/Reusable%20Mugs%20for%20a%20Greener%20campus.pdf.
Reusable Mug Program. (n.d.). Retrieved November 20, 2014, from http://www.bu.edu/sustainability/what-were-doing/waste-reduction/reusable-mug-program/ Appendix Reusable Mugs for Environmental Sustainability
Reusable or Disposable – you decide! 1. How often do you buy coffee or tea (hot or cold) on campus? [ ] never [ ] occasionally [ ] daily [ ] More than once daily 2. Where are you most likely to get your coffee or tea? Circle your answer Au Bon Pain Dunkin Donuts Campus Center Cafeteria The Beans List
N-wing Student Restaurant I do not buy coffee or tea on campus
3. Where are you least likely to get your coffee or tea? Circle your answer Au Bon Pain Dunkin Donuts Campus Center Cafeteria The Beans List
N-wing Student Restaurant I do not buy coffee or tea on campus
4. Have you considered using a reusable mug for your coffee or tea? [ ] yes [ ] No 5. Would you be interested in a school-issued reusable mug? [ ] yes [ ] No 6. What would be the benefits of a reusable mug? [ ] personal attachment [ ] better for the environment [ ] less chance of spill [ ] larger serving [ ] durable [ ] other ………………………….. 7. What would be the problems with a reusable mug?
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[ ] having to clean it [ ] having to carry it around [ ] takes up space [ ] other ………………………. 8. If there were a discount in the price of coffee or tea in a reusable mug, how likely would you be to carry and use one? [ ] I would definitely carry one [ ] likely [ ] Not very likely [ ] Not at all likely I am a [ ] freshman [ ] sophomore [ ] junior [ ] senior [ ] graduate student
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