Organization pushes for more eco-friendly cups

Students may soon have a greener way to blow off steam on Prospect Avenue.

Greening Princeton is seeking to bring recyclable cups to the Street as part of its efforts to curb environmentally unfriendly behaviors on campus.

"In all the clubs, there are so many [plastic cups] wasted each night," co-president of Greening Princeton Posie Harwood '09 said. She estimated the clubs used 5,000 cups each Thursday and Saturday.

Greening the eating clubs has long been a topic for discussion because of the large amount of waste they produce each day. Greening Princeton has been proposing ecologically sustainable ideas to club officers in a drive to reform some of the clubs' practices.

Mark Smith '09, co-president of Greening Princeton, said the organization is now in the stages of researching the types of cups currently used by the eating clubs. Smith is pricing alternative recyclable cups to present to the eating club officers.

"This is an emerging project. What we're trying to do is find a way so that it'll not cost them [the eating clubs] extra," Harwood said. "Our part is to make it not a huge deal for them to switch over."

So far, the organization has found eating clubs to be receptive to the ecologically friendly ideas.

"I've gotten numerous emails from random officers showing interest in the project without me even contacting them," Harwood said.

Cottage Club community service officer Colin Fechter said his club has already implemented various sustainable practices, such as purchasing from local farmers and using nontoxic cleaning and lawncare products. He said Cottage is considering using recyclable cups, but they would cost about four times the price of plastic cups.

"A Street-wide collaborative effort (buying in bulk) would be needed to keep the costs reasonable," Fechter said in an email. "Yet even recycled cups present similar issues —petroleum or paper — which is the lesser evil?"

Last spring, Greening Princeton worked with the eating clubs and Princeton Prospect Foundation, a nonprofit organization that supports the eating clubs, to carry out the Cool Bulbs Initiative. The project sought to improve energy efficiency and delivered $5,000 worth of compact fluorescent bulbs to all 10 eating clubs.

In addition to "greening the Street," Greening Princeton conducts a number of other projects throughout the year. The group first identifies specific environmental issues to target and then develops special task forces to seek solutions.

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During a meeting on Oct. 15, the group discussed conservation awareness posters for laundry rooms and ways to address paper consumption on campus, among other topics.

As a smaller project, Greening Princeton is updating the poster campaigns for the discounts given in campus cafes for using reusable mugs.

"The current signs that are up are suggesting that it's only the sustainability mug that the University hands out at the beginning of the year," Kelsey Stallings '09 said. "And we're just getting a new round of signs up to reinforce that it's any reusable cup that can get you the discount."

As part of its educational outreach program, Greening Princeton will send four students to various local elementary schools for presentations on recycling starting Nov. 5. The organization is currently planning an outreach program for middle school students as well.

Other projects organized by Greening Princeton include the annual Run for the Tiger, a race in which proceeds are donated to a tiger habitat preservation, and Recyclemania, a national recycling competition between more than 200 universities.