Hodgdon Good-to-Go this semester stopped selling single-serving beverage bottles and cans and offering plastic bags to shoppers in an effort to cut back on the amount of plastic waste generated by Tufts Dining Services, according to Director of Dining and Business Services Patti Klos.
Dining Services targeted Hodgdon, previously the greatest source of single-serving plastic water bottles on campus, as the primary site of its plastic reduction efforts, according to Klos.
"Bottle water was the main focus, but we said we could look at plastic bags as well," Klos said. "We wanted to be more comprehensive in our approach."
Hodgdon offered free Nalgene water bottles to students during the first two weeks of classes and now sells reusable bags.
Klos said that the changes have been in the works for a few years, though major pushes from student groups and classes last semester propelled them to implement the changes this year.
Members of two classes, Environmental Action: Shifting from Saying to Doing, offered through the Experimental College, and Environmental Justice and U.S. Literature, were responsible for pressuring Dining Services to reduce the number of plastic products on campus.
"Late last spring, after working with these two different groups of students, we felt that there was enough support," Klos said. "The community seemed very open to the change in practice."
Students in Environmental Justice and U.S. Literature last semester spearheaded an environmental campaign focusing on plastic bag consumption. They generated a 620-signature petition for the removal of plastic bags from Hodgdon, according to Klos.
In addition, members of the ExCollege class last fall made the elimination of plastic water bottles their mission. They led a social marketing campaign to survey students on plastic water bottle use and discussed possible means of reducing plastic water bottles on campus with Dining Services, according to Office of Sustainability Program Director Tina Woolston.
In previous semesters, the class led successful campaigns to eliminate trays from the dining hall and change default printer settings to double-sided.
"They talked to students and they talked to dining service staff to find options," Woolston, who taught the class, said. "Then, in the spring, a group of students kept going with it."
Research conducted by students in the class found that while almost 90 percent of the surveyed population had reusable water bottles, students still opted to buy plastic water bottles from Hodgdon because they were readily available.
"[The students] were sort of armed with this information, so they were able to go to Dining Services and say people get this water because it's basically free," Woolston said.
After the class ended, students formed Tufts Against Plastic (TAP), according to junior Daniel Markowitz. They continued their work from first semester after joining with Tufts Sustainability Coalition, he said.
Junior Kathleen Kidwell, who last semester led TAP, said she was not expecting such a positive reaction from students regarding the elimination of plastic water bottles.
"We were expecting a lot of resistance, so we put together education last summer," she said.
So far, however, students seem to be accepting the change, she remarked.
"People are pretty happy with it," Kidwell said, attributing the smooth transition in part to the free Nalgene water bottles offered at the beginning of the semester.
Kidwell said that Dining Services was very receptive to the students' push for change.
"They really like having the students come to them and lay out a concrete solution," she said. "It was very easy working with them."
Tufts Dining Services conducted significant research to design an effective marketing campaign and to find the right kind of reusable water bottles to offer. They finally found a water bottle that would fit under most sinks in Tufts dorms, Klos said.
Klos stressed the fact that all parties involved will benefit from the reduction of plastic goods.
"We are able to attend to other things and the end user has savings in their pocket," she said. "It's a win-win for everybody."
