'BYOB' sticker campaign promoting sustainable living around campus
Stickers have been popping up around campus with one simple message: B.Y.O.B.
But the new campaign has nothing to do with partying; the message is one stressing environmental awareness and sustainability through small, easy steps.
The "Small Steps, No Footprint" campaign, promoted through a partnership between the Student Environmental Alliance and the Great Lakes Institute for Sustainable Systems, is placing stickers on waste receptacles and drinking fountains around campus to remind students of their environmental impact.
"The stickers on drinking fountains are there to remind people to B.Y.O.B. (Bring Your Own Bottle) so we can eliminate unnecessary plastic water bottle waste," said SEA President Chloe Gleichman, a Saline junior. "By placing a reminder by trash cans, we hope to get people to think twice about what they are throwing away. Many things can be recycled of which people are unaware."
Although the campaign is focused primarily on the stickers for now, GLISS Director Tom Rohrer said it could easily be expanded to encompass other parts of campus and student life, including the promotion of sustainable practices within residence halls.
Facilities Management, helping to cover the cost of the roughly 700 stickers distributed around campus, has funded the campaign. Facilities Management Director Jay Kahn said initiatives such as this one were important for students.
"(The) campus population turns over with each graduating class, (and) incoming students want to know how to support recycling programs and eliminate bottled water," he said. "Outreach efforts like the sticker campaign help create awareness."
On top of being wasteful, Gleichman said plastic water bottles are nothing more than a marketing scheme designed to trick us into buying something that should already be free and available.
"The plastic in water bottles has been known to leach chemicals into the water," she said. "Tap water is tested multiple times daily for safety, whereas the entire bottled water industry is monitored by one person in the FDA who has other responsibilities as well. As such, the bottled water industry remains highly unregulated. From an economic standpoint, bottled water makes no sense. Here, we have access to clean, safe and free tap water. Bottled water costs the equivalent of $10 per gallon. And to think we complain about gas prices."
Aside from just recycling and using a reusable water bottle, Gleichman said there are many simple, everyday choices that can be made to create a sustainable living, such as turning off lights, eliminating waste and being conscious of what can be reduced and reused.
Although these small steps toward change can make a huge impact, Gleichman said these initiatives were only the tip of the iceberg in terms of what still needs to be accomplished.
"While these personal lifestyle choices are essential to realizing a sustainable future, I want to stress that personal change is not equivalent to systemic change," she said. "The systems that have permeated our governments do not place priority on the future of the planet, which is inextricably linked to the future of the human race ... personal lifestyle changes are necessary and good, but what is ultimately needed is true systemic change and infrastructure overhaul"
