CollegiateTimes.com - Editorial: Styrofoam solution must be found

Editorial: Styrofoam solution must be found

CT editorial board

Wednesday, June 4; 7:52 PM

This article has been modified from its original version. One million Stryofoam containers were used by Owens Food Court and Hokie Grill combined. The Collegiate Times regrets this error.

The Environmental Coalition of Virginia Tech estimates that Owens Food Court and Hokie Grill used more than 1 million Styrofoam containers in the last year.

One million containers. And that's Owens and Hokie Grill alone, not the campus as a whole.

Almost everyone is guilty of having said, "to go" and then dined in. While this is certainly an area that needs improvement, the underlying problem lies with the material itself.

According to the Missouri state government Web site, Styrofoam containers last for more than 1 million years — effectively forever.

There are several ways to improve the situation. The Environmental Coalition placed table cards in Owens, West End and Shultz that gave students more information about Styrofoam and its undesirable attributes.

Students should refrain from ordering food in to-go containers unless they truly plan on carrying out. Oftentimes tables are full of students who are eating out of Styrofoam containers — this is probably partly out of habit and partly out of convenience.

Students need to wake up and realize that while it may be easier on them to order "to go," it's not easier on the planet. This will require an awareness campaign, and while the Environmental Coalition has started to bring attention to the matter, Tech needs to step up and help.

A survey by the Environmental Coalition, available online, posits the idea of charging students between 5 cents and 15 cents more to use biodegradable containers in place of the current Styrofoam model.

Although only 116 people have taken the survey so far, 59 percent were willing to pay up to 15 cents for planet-friendly models and 78 percent were willing to pay 5 cents more.

Alternatives are available. Foamed polystyrene, what Styrofoam is made of, can also be constructed using cornstarch. This switch would allow for a 100 percent biodegradable container.

"As I understand it, D2 will switch to the corn-based Styrofoam this coming year," said Kyle Knight, the Dining Services Facilitator within the Environmental Coalition. "Though I am not sure about the other dining halls.

While switching to corn-based products is a start, and a smart one at that, Tech needs to "Invent the Future" in an environmentally conscious way.

The editorial board is composed of David Harries and Lauren Lee

Posted by: me at Jun 22 "According to the Missouri state government Web site, Styrofoam containers last for more than 1 million years — effectively forever." So what? http://www.ncpa.org/studies/s165/s165.html Flag Abuse

Posted by: Anna at Jun 12 To Amanda, Knowing information like that might ease some people's minds (if that actually happened), but knowing that the guy that loads the dirty dishes in is the same guy that probably sets them out for pickup without washing his hands in between annihilates any sense of cleanliness. And having worked in restaurants of varying quality, I can tell you I've never known a place to sterilize their dishware for twelve minutes. Flag Abuse

Posted by: Jason T at Jun 12 To "and another thing": You're right. This seems like a great chance for an exercise in basic economic principles. If you want to discourage the behavior of using styrofoam containers, make people pay for using them. The trick is to have a goal amount of styrofoam usage in mind and tinker with the fee until enough people are discouraged from using the containers to meet the goal. Flag Abuse

Posted by: at Jun 9 I wouldn't just blame the students for ordering their meals to go- I've gone to the dining halls many times just to receive my meals in a styrofoam box by servers that are too lazy to use plates. And who cares of D2 switches- you can't take food out of their anyway so what kind of impact is that going to have. Flag Abuse

Posted by: and another thing... at Jun 9 Why not go ahead and charge that extra 5-15 cents on every takeout order? Maybe the styrofoam container doesn't cost that much, but it would sure raise awareness, as people are much more aware of their wallets (or flex dollars) than their environment. Then the extra revenue would be built-in, and it would be easy to get the dining halls to switch to the more expensive, more earth-friendly takeout boxes. Flag Abuse

Posted by: Amanda at Jun 9 I know several people who, even at restaurants will order drinks in a "to-go" cup, because they don't trust that the restaurant washes their glasses thoroughly. (Of course, I ask why they're okay with the plates, utensils and even the cooking equipment, but that's another matter.) Perhaps students are using this philosophy also, as they order "to-go" and then eat in. If that be the case, a good way the CT can contribute to the awareness campaign mentioned here would be to investigate the dish-washing operations at all the dining halls to show they are up to snuff. Germophobes might be satisfied with the "dine-in" dishes if they know that every plate, glass and fork was sterilized in a 215-degree steam wash for twelve minutes, for example. Flag Abuse

Posted by: Alum 07 at Jun 5 Why don't you learn to write real editorials instead of copying articles from your own paper? I wasn't an English major but, if I turned in this kind of lazy writing for an assignment it surely would have warranted a terrible grade. Flag Abuse


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