This summer, Green Up and the St. Michael’s bookstore are working on an agreement to reduce plastic bag use in the bookstore. The initiative, which began last week, is still in its planning stages and no final plans have been reached, bookstore manager Stephen McMahon says.
A proposition for change
 |
Junior and Green Up member Dan Sandberg proudly holds the plastic bag initiative drafted by Green Up. (Photo by Kaitlin Couillard) |
Each year, especially at the beginning of the semester, the school store dishes out large amounts of plastic bags, junior Green Up member Derek Souza says. Students will often go to the store multiple times and carry out multiple plastic bags, he adds.
The problem is that the use of plastic bags is detrimental to the environment, Souza says.
“They’re a waste; you don’t need them,” he says. “The amount of energy that goes into making one plastic bag is huge, and people just throw them out.”
The initiative got off the ground in Patricia Delaney’s Sustainable Development class, Green Up member Matt Howard says. The class was assigned a final paper and Howard asked about taking action in place of writing a paper, he says.
“It’s something I’d thought about for awhile,” Howard says. “It always annoyed me that we used plastic bags.”
Howard, who has lived in Burlington for a year and a half, was impressed with the progressive image of the college town but saw some inconsistencies, he says.
“We feel as though this is a special place and more progressive, and sometimes I think that can lull people into this sense of complacency of ‘Hey, we’re Vermont. We’re the Green State,’” he says. “I’m not trying to sound negative, but let’s put our money where our mouth is.”
Initially there was a plan for Burlington to charge a tax whenever a plastic bag was used in the city, junior and Green Up member Dan Sandberg says.
“We realized we couldn’t ask that from the community if we weren’t doing that on the campus,” Sandberg says.
Green Up originally thought of two solutions for the bookstore. The first was to have the campus bookstore charge a 25-cent environmental impact surcharge for students who wished to use plastic bags, Howard says.
“We’ll have some type of display at the cash register to explain the project,” he says. “We want people to understand the details of the situation and want to show that the bookstore is active in this.”
 |
Junior and Green Up member uses an environmentally friendly tote bag as an alternative to plastic bags. (Photo by Kaitlin Couillard) |
The other proposition was to sell environmentally friendly, locally made tote bags that students could reuse each time they went back, Howard says.
“We went in on Friday [April 18] and they had already been working on it,” Sandberg says. “They were really receptive to what we had to say.”
“They one-upped us,” Howard says. “The bookstore will be providing a free tote bag for every student who purchases books at the store.”
The tote bags could also be used in other outlets, such as Cumberland Farms and grocery stores, Souza says.
Though this initiative is overwhelmingly positive, questions have been raised in regards to visitors who would not be given a free bag.
“I hadn’t really thought about that,” Souza says. “Maybe they’d bring their own bags. It’s a mindset you have to change.”
Green Up’s aim is not to rid the college of plastic bags.
“We’re not calling for an outright ban,” Howard says. “For people visiting there will still be bags, but they will have the 25-cent surcharge.”
While nothing is set in stone, McMahon confirmed that the bookstore is working and will continue to work closely with Green Up over the summer.
It is an issue that has just come into play in the past week, McMahon says. The bookstore does not want to come out and say that the current proposal is what will definitely happen then have something different when the fall semester rolls around, he says.
“We’re exploring all options,” McMahon says. “We’re just trying to find what will work best.”
Start small, get bigger
While this movement is just starting to get off the ground here at St. Michael’s, other cities have already made substantial steps ahead, Howard says.
 |
A box of plastic bags sits on the counter in the bookstore. (Photo by Kaitlin Couillard) |
Last September, San Francisco entirely eliminated the use of plastic bags. People thought this would be a huge problem and business would be unable to function properly, he says.
“But the sky didn’t fall and the city is still standing,” he says. “They just reduced the amount of bags they throw out. I think they’re really the vanguard of the movement.”
Many European countries have taken part in this initiative and some have even gone deeper and banned the use of aluminum cans, Howard says.
“This is a movement that is spanning the entire globe,” he says.
A similar proposition was proposed in the Vermont State Legislature but was voted down, Howard says. While Green Up didn't have anything to do with the past proposal, it is currently reworking this bill in hopes that it will pass in the next year, he adds.
Another proposal, that is much like the one in San Francisco is being submitted to Burlington town officials, Howard says.
The plan is to start things off with the bookstore and then expand the plan to the Burlington City Council, he says. From here, the bill would go back to the state legislature and hopefully beyond, he says
Other major metropolitan areas, including New York City and Boston, are considering similar initiatives, Howard says.
“I think it’s awesome,” Souza says. “Every city needs to do it.”
Putting change into action
If all goes as planned, the project will go into effect at the beginning of next semester, Howard says.
“It’s nice showing incoming freshmen that we are committed to the green movement,” he says “I think it’s also empowering to show other students that making real, significant, measurable change is with in our grasp.”
There have been a lot optimistic reactions so far, Souza says. A lot of students agree with what is being done to help make a difference, he says
“The reactions have already been positive,” Howard says. “I mean who would say no to a free, environmentally friendly, reusable bag?”
Junior Maggie Rowlands believes that reducing the use of plastic bags is a necessary step the school must take in combating global warming and saving the environment, she says.
“If St. Mike’s is turning into a green campus, we have to act locally and not be toting around plastic bags,” Rowlands says.
The bookstore is representative of our school, especially to those who visit. This is where the focus needs to be, she says.
“I think if the bookstore trailblazes, everyone will follow,” Rowlands says. “It only takes one leader to make a difference.”
This is a good step towards reducing our carbon footprint, Souza says. The process of making plastic bags uses large amounts of oil.
It is estimated that the United States uses around 12 million barrels of oil in the process of making plastic bags each year, according to alternet.com.
Transportation of the bags also plays a large part in how the environment is affected, he says.
“We have to ship to plastic bags here,” Souza says. “Just right there the truck will have to use a lot of fuel. It takes a lot of energy to make a bag, and delivery is a huge part to consider.”
It is a habit we will have to break, and the bookstore is providing a great opportunity for us to do so, Howard says.
“That speaks to changing the culture on this issue,” he says. “It shows the impact that some of our simple life choices have on the environment.”
The entire initiative was done without any form of petition. It was a strong example of students working together and walking away with a policy everyone is happy with, Howard says.
“In the scope of things this was actually easy to do,” Howard says. “People think it’s a daunting task to change policy, but when people collaborate you’d be amazed at what’s possible.”