We are consuming resources, including oil and natural gas, at an ever-increasing pace that is fundamentally unsustainable, largely driven through the development of disposable products and packaging. Plastic pollution is showing up everywhere, in streams and oceans, in the stomachs of marine mammals and wildlife, and in our food and water supply. At current pace, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish by 2050, and recycling is not the solution. Our pledge does not allow for “recyclable” plastic if it has the potential to be contaminated by food. The international recycling markets are experiencing significant turmoil, in large part due to contamination from food and flimsy plastic. For recycling to work, products have to be separated into near perfect categories. In modern single-stream recycling systems, contamination from foil-lined plastic packaging and food-contaminated products have downgraded recycled plastic markets significantly. We fundamentally have to change course, and that means finding systematic solutions that eliminate disposable plastic at the source in favor of reusable and compostable options.

Phasing out single-use plastics is a complex process. As such, we expect many schools to work towards single-use plastic elimination by replacing plastic disposables with single-use compostable alternatives. While in the long-run we encourage these campuses work to eliminate single-use disposables altogether, it is an important step in the right direction.

Unfortunately, many campuses across the country lack sufficient infrastructure for the type of industrial-scale composting necessary to break down single-use compostable items. Even when these facilities are geographically available, some schools lack the financial capital to contract sending their waste to these facilities. Nevertheless, replacing plastic disposables with compostable products is an important first step to breaking from purchasing contracts that mandate branded plastic products. The shift also reduces a school’s dependence on fossil fuels and can incentivize composting infrastructure investment. With these factors in mind, this pledge recognizes the switch to ASTM-certified compostable disposables, independent of compost infrastructure, as a step in the process of breaking free from plastic.

With all these challenges and more, significant changes cannot happen overnight. Eliminating disposable plastic food serviceware requires alternate solutions. For reusables to work, institutions need to establish systems, infrastructure and fair-wage jobs to properly collect and wash dishware. Compostables are only viable when institutions can guarantee that the material is going to a properly permitted industrial composting facility. As noted above, for some items to be eliminated (such as packaged food like granola bars), institutions need to ensure that fresh, unpackaged, and affordable alternatives are available. Our goal with the “Break Free From Plastic” Campus Pledge is to support students and staff as they build campaigns to gain institutional commitment, and then to support the institution as they begin to implement these important policy and infrastructure changes with guidance on best-practices.