Plastic Bottles Crushed

By Mallory Miller

Spring quarter 2013 is officially the last quarter Santa Clara branded water bottles will be sold on campus.

A petition to ban plastic water bottles on campus was finalized the last week of winter quarter. Multiple individuals, sustainability clubs and non-sustainability affiliated clubs were involved in the project.

Ellen Yun, sustainability senator for Associated Student Government, and Kelsey Baker, president of OCEANS Club, organized the project plan and wrote the petition to ban plastic water bottles on campus earlier this year.

Santa Clara would be joining other universities that have already banned the sale of plastic water bottles on their campuses, such as Gonzaga University, San Francisco State University and Seattle University. Yun and Baker had ambitions to get Santa Clara, one of the leading green universities on the West Coast, on that list.

Phase One of the project was to get at least 600 signatures for the petition and to gain support from the student body. The petition successfully received over 800 electronic and hard copy signatures combined.

"It was shocking how quickly we were able to get the signatures and complete Phase One of the project," said Yun. "It would not have been possible to finalize the petition without the help and support from individuals, organizations and clubs across campus. This just shows how environmentally conscious our student body truly is."

The petition gained an ample amount of support from various clubs and departments on campus. Many clubs helped distribute the petition at their individual meetings, shared links to the electronic petition on Facebook, tabled in Benson Memorial Center, and helped spread the word around campus.

"Leaders reaching out to other leaders on campus make a huge difference," said Baker. "Just through this project I feel like we have created a strong network between clubs on campus."

The project has been launched into Phase Two now that Phase One is complete. Yun and Baker have been meeting with Jane Barrantes, assistant vice president of Auxiliary Services, and Bob Lubecky, manager of Bon Appétit, to arrange further action to replace the plastic water bottles with glass bottles so students still have the convenience of buying water. However, Bon Appétit has been concerned that eliminating the sales of Santa Clara brand plastic water bottles will result in a loss of profit and negative reactions from consumers, specifically alumni.

"Alumni, orientation, prospective students and families and donor events have liked the (Santa Clara) label over a commercial one," said Barrantes. " However, organizers are willing to accept its elimination of the private labeled water if the students no longer think it is a good connection to be made."

Bon Appétit only has enough Santa Clara labeled water in stock to last until the end of this academic year, and will no longer be ordering more. The company is currently contracted with Coca Cola for the next six years, after making the switched from Pepsi to Coke products. With this contract, Bon Appétit receives Coke product water bottles as well. Coke has offered to sell an alternative drink to Bon Appétit instead of the water bottles. This replacement, however, is still being negotiated as Bon Appétit is unsure of the health benefits of adding another sugary drink.

"Unexpected issues have come up throughout the execution of the project, but with so much student support we are able to work around current and past issues," said Baker.

Contact Mallory Miller at memiller@scu.edu or call (408) 554-4852.