HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — The primary color for Marshall University is kelly green but that’s not stopping the university from attempting to become more green.
Marshall has made a commitment to go plastic-free by 2026, another step in the institution’s initiative.
Marshall announced Monday that President Jerome Gilbert recently signed the ‘Break Free from Plastic Campus Pledge,’ which is a campus-wide commitment to eliminate all single-use disposable plastics such as plastic cups and takeout containers.
The pledge specifically addresses accessibility and exclusivity concerns and generates a framework for college campuses and other institutions to develop long-term systemic solutions to issues around waste and disposable consumption, according to a release.
Amy Parsons-White, Marshall’s Sustainability Manager told MetroNews that the university is the only school in Appalachia to take the pledge.
“We are working very hard to make sure that we are responsible stewards, and doing everything we can to reduce our carbon footprint and reduce the waste that we as a university produce,” Parsons-White said.
She told MetroNews that the initiative was led by the Marshall University Sustainability Club and supported by the non-profit Post-Landfill Action Network (PLAN).
Parsons-White said there are many benefits to this move including reducing the amount of waste headed to the landfill. She said that plastic can be around for thousands of years and ultimately only 30% of the plastics sent to recycling facilities actually get recycled.
“That adds up to a lot of waste with no place to go. It ends up in the oceans, in the ground and microplastics have even been found in our drinking water. This can pose a health risk to people and animals,” Parsons-White said.
Parsons-White also said there is cost-savings with this initiative, even though the vegetable-based plastics cost more upfront. She said the money to be saved is in the reduction of the waste haul to landfills, where Marshall spends $90 a ton to recycle plastics on campus.
She tied this announcement together with the university’s new compost facility, which will turn the waste into a sellable product.
“We can take the items that used to be single-use plastic, replace them slowly but surely over the next five years with compostable items and gradually reduce our waste haul while increasing the items we are able to compost on campus,” she said.
Marshall is nearing the opening of the first commercial composting facility in West Virginia following the arrival of a large digester on January 12. The facility is set to be fully operational by March 2021.
“By reducing our plastic on campus, we are hoping to take that first step for the entire region to do away with single use plastics and change to things that can be broken down to reduce waste overall,” Parsons-White said.