Amanda Czeslaw, Sydne Hunter, Courtney Klecha ... Czeslaw, Sydne Hunter, Courtney Klecha Environmental Sustainability (SUST 2100) Tait Chirenje The Richard Stockton College of New

The Osprey Mug Initiative: The Green Way to Enjoy Your Favorite Beverages

Project Proposal

Amanda Czeslaw, Sydne Hunter, Courtney Klecha Environmental Sustainability (SUST 2100)

Tait Chirenje The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey

Fall 2014

1

Table of Contents

I. Mission Statement................................................................................................................3 II. Abstract................................................................................................................................3

III. Statement of Need................................................................................................................3 IV. Statement of Interest............................................................................................................4 V. Action Plan...........................................................................................................................4

VI. Project Rationale..................................................................................................................5 A. Reduces Plastic in the Environment B. Lowers Customer Cost C. Business for the Bookstore D. Community Influence E. School Pride and Promotion

VII. Action Plan……………………………………………………………………………..7 VIII. Detailed Project Description…………………………………………………………….7

A. Goal B. Finances C. Timeline D. Resources E. Success

VIII. Reusable Mug Implementation Examples………………………………………………9 A. The Bean’s List B. Dunkin’ Donuts Implementation C. Boston University Reusable Mug Program

IX. References……………………………………………………………………………….11 X. Appendix………………………………………………………………………………..12

A. Hot Mug Order Form B. Cold Mug Order Form C. Copy of Survey

2

Mission Statement

Our mission is to aid Stockton College in meeting its goals for sustainability on campus.

We intend to do so by reducing the amount of paper and plastic cup waste produced by the

school’s food and beverage vendors, which can be accomplished by replacing these cups with

reusable “Osprey Mugs” sold in the school Bookstore.

Abstract

The goal of this project is to implement policies into the Galloway campus dining

locations to allow students to purchase beverages in reusable mugs. The Bean’s List, a food and

beverage retailer in the Academic building, already allows customers to bring their own mugs to

be refilled at a fixed price. We aim to have a similar initiative installed in all dining locations on

campus, including the Campus Center Food Court and the N-Wing Student Restaurant. If there

were a policy that allowed customers to hand over a reusable mug to be filled with beverages, the

number of paper and plastic cups wasted would decrease dramatically. For pricing purposes, we

wish to standardize the size of “eligible” mugs by limiting them to a specific type sold by the

school bookstore. We have decided to call these mugs “Osprey Mugs.” There will be discounted

prices for beverages dispensed into Osprey Mugs, as incentive for students to use them. The

umbrella company for dining services at Stockton, Chartwells, has already agreed to a flat-rate

fee of $1.19 for the refill of any medium or large reusable mug with hot coffee or tea. Medium or

large mugs are any mugs that hold more fluid ounces than the designated “small” size of coffee

at a vendor. Osprey Mugs fall in this category for most eateries on campus. Discount prices for

other beverages, including iced coffee, soft drinks, and specialty drinks, are still in the works.

Once protocols are in place with the vendors, we will sell 200 mugs to students for $1.00 each to

encourage the program. After that, they will be available for purchase at the original retail price

in the Bookstore.

Statement of Need

In order to examine the necessity of reusable mugs on campus, let’s look at how the

Stockton community purchases coffee. Coffee, one of the most prominent beverages in America,

3

was sold in 14.4 billion disposable cups over the past year. Placed end-to-end, these cups could

wrap around the earth 55 times (“De-cup your decaf,” 2012). At Stockton, the Dunkin’ Donuts

located in the campus center is by far the most popular place to get coffee. There is a plastic

liner located within Dunkin’ Donuts’ disposable paper cups that prevents the cups from being

recycled. Instead, they must be burned or buried in a landfill. In addition to these paper cups,

Dunkin’ Donuts uses clear plastic cups for its iced coffees. These cups are made from plastic that

falls under the recycling code number 5, and which cannot be recycled by many

“curbside-recycling programs” (Hudson, 2013). In fact, none of the cups from Stockton’s

Dunkin’ Donuts can be recycled by the Atlantic County Utilities Authority. The cups and their

lids are dumped in a landfill in Egg Harbor Township. Once in the landfill, the different plastics

in the cups and lids can take hundreds of years to break down.

Stockton College, proclaimed as one of the greenest colleges in America, needs to take

action to end the short cycle of manufacturer to consumer to landfill that occurs on its campus

hundreds of times a day when people purchase drinks. The College can use the Osprey Mug

Initiative to help its students live functionally but sustainably.

Statement of Interest

To get an idea of whether or not Stockton students were interested in a reusable mug

program, we conducted a survey of sixty students. All student levels were represented, from

freshmen to graduate students, and we focused on the purchase of coffee and tea. When asked

how often they purchase coffee or tea (hot or cold) on campus, almost half of those surveyed

responded either “daily” or “more than once daily.” When asked where they are most likely to

purchase their coffee or tea, 62% indicated Dunkin’ Donuts on the form.

An overwhelming 90% of students surveyed said that they would be interested in a

school-issued reusable mug. Another encouraging fact is that even students who indicated that

they had never before considered carrying a reusable mug answered “yes,” that they were

interested in receiving such a mug. When students were asked what they considered to be the

drawbacks of reusable mugs, the most common response was that the mugs are a hassle to carry

around. However, when asked whether, with the offer of a discount for using a mug, they would

4

actually carry one, 62% of students said that they would “definitely carry one.” Another 27%

stated that they would be “likely” to carry one. It seems that the incentive of a discount, along

with what those surveyed indicated as benefits of using a reusable mug (the most common of

which was that the mugs are better for the environment than disposable cups) must outweigh the

hassle of carrying one. All in all, student response to the idea was largely positive, and we can

expect a great deal of interest and support from the student population if this proposal becomes a

reality.

Project Rationale

A. Reduces Plastic in the Environment: The disposable coffee containers being sold

currently by the Stockton Dunkin’ Donuts are unsustainable and very environmentally

detrimental. For a college that touts its sustainable practices, Stockton is certainly not

living up to its words by allowing hundreds of non-recyclable cups to be distributed,

briefly used, and then disposed of every day across its campus.

The campus Dunkin’ Donuts uses hot coffee cups produced by International

Paper. They are made of paper, but they are coated on the inside with a plastic called

polyethylene. This plastic lining prevents the cups from being recycled, as they tend to

clog the screens used in the recycling process (Luna, 2013). When the cups are inevitably

thrown in landfills, the polyethylene cannot biodegrade. The plastic can, with sun

exposure, break down into extremely small pieces, but soil microorganisms cannot

convert it into a form that is useful in the environment. Therefore, the plastic simply

remains in the soil in tiny pieces indefinitely (Koutny et al, 2006).

Each cup comes with a flat-topped lid made of rigid polystyrene. Most are more

familiar with this type of plastic in its foam form, marketed as Styrofoam. The Atlantic

County Utilities Authority (ACUA) does not recycle polystyrene in any form, meaning

that the lids, along with the cups, are also bound for the landfill (“How do I dispose

of…,” 2014).

The cold beverage cups sold at Dunkin’ Donuts are manufactured by the Dart

Container Corporation. The cups and their lids are made of a clear plastic called

5

polyethylene terephthalate, commonly abbreviated as PETE. Although PETE falls under

plastic recycling code number 1, meaning it is easily recyclable, the ACUA does not

recycle materials that have been contaminated by food. Therefore, these plastic cups will

end up in the environment with all the others.

If a student buys one cup of coffee or tea every day during the fall and spring

semesters, he or she is throwing out approximately 200 plastic or plastic-coated cups per

academic year. If that student began using an Osprey Mug, up to 200 cups could be saved

from the local landfill. That’s just from one student switching to a reusable mug. If even a

portion of all students who purchase coffee daily (almost half of the sample population)

utilized an osprey mug, the amount of plastic kept out of the landfill would be significant.

B. Lowers Customer Cost: Chartwells has agreed to a price of $1.19 for any reusable mug

that is larger than the designated “small” size (usually ten or twelve ounces) of hot coffee

or tea at any given vendor. Any mug that holds the same amount of fluid ounces as the

“small” size will be discounted at 20% off the original price. Osprey Mugs will be 16

ounces.

C. Business for the Bookstore: We will be purchasing an initial round of mugs from the

school Bookstore to be sold for a promotional price of $1.00. As Osprey Mugs become

popular on campus, the Bookstore will see more and more students coming in to buy

them at full price. This will lead to an increase in business for the store, and therefore an

increase in revenue.

D. Community Influence: Stockton frequents local and regional newspapers, and the

college is often seen as a pioneer in sustainability. The Osprey Mug Initiative could easily

spread to other New Jersey colleges such as Atlantic Cape Community College, Rowan

University, and Rutgers University. Chartwells could also be instrumental in helping

reusable mug programs move beyond Stockton. The company could offer the option of

reusable mugs to any facility to which it provides dining services. The Osprey Mug

program could be one more way that Stockton positively influences the community.

E. School Pride and Promotion: Every Osprey Mug will also be printed with the Stockton

logo. Students at the college love to show off their Stockton gear, and the Mugs will

6

certainly foster school pride. When carried off-campus, they will also bring Stockton- and

its sustainability initiatives- into conversations that promote the school.

Action Plan

There is a hot/cold beverage travel mug with the Stockton logo on it already being sold in

the Bookstore. We hope to market these as Osprey Mugs. To kick off the project, we will buy

200 of these mugs from the Bookstore at a discounted price. Retail price in the store is $11.95

per mug, but the Bookstore will take off 25%. We will sell these mugs from a table in the campus

center for $1.00 to get them in circulation. This will serve to publicize the initiative and also get

students excited about Osprey Mugs. If the promotion is successful and the mugs go too fast, we

will purchase 100 more from the Bookstore.

The most important determining factor in the success of this project is student and faculty

awareness. To increase awareness, there will be promotional messages on the television

screensavers across the campus along with an announcement flyer uploaded to the Stockton “Go

portal” announcement link. We will have small signs printed and placed on the tables around

campus eateries and at the registers of all vendors. There will also be an article about the plan

and its importance in the school paper, the “ARGO.”

Detailed Project Description

A. Goal: Our terminal goal is to reduce the amount of waste produced on Stockton campus.

We want to achieve this through individuals using a reusable cup instead of the

disposable cups given out by the vendors. In doing so we will achieve waste reduction on

campus and a smaller impact on the Egg Harbor Township landfill.

B. Finances: In total, we are asking for a budget of $3,500. Please refer to the following

table for the breakdown of all fees. We will be purchasing 200 Stockton University

Travel Tumblers from the Bookstore at a 25% discount off the retail price. We will be

selling these from a table for $1.00. We would also like to reserve money to buy 100

more of these mugs if the promotion is extremely successful. We will also be purchasing

7

four posters at about $50.00 each. The leftover money will be used to purchase

additional marketing materials.

Item Amount Cost per unit Discount Total Cost

Mugs for Promotion

200 $11.95 25% $1,814.50

Additional Mugs (if necessary)

100 $11.95 25% $896.25

36” X 72” Posters

4 $50.00 N/A $200.00

Additional Advertising (small signs, table display)

$589.25

Total $3,500

C. Timeline: We hope to have this proposal fully implemented within a three month period

after it is approved by both our vendor, Chartwells, and our distributer, the Stockton

Bookstore. During the first three days of Week 1 of implementation, we will set up a

table in the Campus Center and distribute the $1.00 mugs. This table will display our plan

of what we are trying to accomplish and how everyone can help reduce our waste. The

cups that were not sold will be saved until Week 2, when we will again set up the table.

We will run this promotion during two different weeks so that the largest number of

individuals can see our display and understand why it is so important to help reduce

waste. Within the first three months, we will study the implementation of our proposal to

see if individuals are using the mugs. It is one thing to get them in the hands of our fellow

students, but we also need to see if they are using them effectively.

D. Resources: We will be purchasing the mugs to be used in the promotion from the

Stockton College Bookstore. After this initial promotion, students and faculty will be able

to purchase them directly from the bookstore for $11.95. Our distributer for the posters

8

we will be using is the website www.makesigns.com. This website allows us to customize

text and pictures onto a 36” by 72” poster.

E. Success: The success of the implementation of our proposal will be measured in multiple

ways. At the end of the third month after implementation, we will run a customer

satisfaction survey. Working hand-in-hand with the bookstore during the first three

months is also key. We need to know how many Osprey Mugs are being sold. This gives

us an indication of how many people support the idea and want to take action with us. We

would also like to collaborate with Chartwells and have them keep tabs on how many

mugs they refill and how many disposable cups they distribute. These figures will allow

us calculate the progress of reduction of waste on campus. Working with vendors in these

first months will help us determine the success of the Osprey Mugs.

Reusable Mug Implementation Examples

A. The Bean’s List: This food and beverage vendor located in the main academic building

has a form of this implementation already in place. They refill any size reusable coffee

cup for $1.19. This policy has been in place for about 3 years.

B. University of Maryland: As cited in a similar University of Colorado proposal, the

University of Maryland has successfully implemented a reusable mug program in its

dining halls. In 2007, the University distributed 4,500 mugs to its students and reported

that 6,120 refills were purchased in November and December of that year (Marx, 2009).

C. University of Vermont: The University of Vermont implemented their own reusable

mug program with the addition of a charity fundraiser: each time an “eco-mug” is

purchased, $0.15 is donated to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (Marx, 2009).

D. Dunkin’ Donuts: Dunkin’ Donuts opened their first “green” restaurant in 2008 and their

second one in 2010. These buildings were constructed with green materials, efficient

lighting systems, and measures to increase water efficiency (DiMascio, 2014). These

were the first two Dunkin’ Donuts locations to start a reusable mug program; they

encourage customers to come in with a reusable mug to be filled at a reduced price.

9

Today, many other Dunkin’ Donuts are participating in this program. This gives us hope

that our idea will really stick.

E. Boston University: Boston University has created a sustainability program that consists

of a committee, dining locations, and working groups such as building and facility

operations, a waste management team, communications, and energy conservation. This

large group of people pursue and promote sustainability at Boston University. Since

2009, Boston University has been promoting reusable mugs through their campaign

“De-cup Your Decaf.” They made it trendy to take pictures with reusable cups and post

them on social media, hashtagging the campaign name. Business all over the campus and

local hotspots offer discounts for the use of reusable cups. City Convenience, Boston

University’s popular convenience store, gives a $1 discount for a refill in a reusable cup.

Other vendors on campus take $0.25 off the price of their coffee (“Reusable Mug

Program,” 2014).

10

References Clear PET cups. (n.d.). Retrieved November 2, 2014, from http://www.dartcontainer.com/web/products.nsf Collegiate Concepts. (n.d.). Retrieved November 20, 2014, from http://www.imprintitems.com De-cup your decaf. (2012, September 13). Retrieved November 20, 2014, from http://www.carbonrally.com/challenges/12-Paper-Coffee-Cups# DiMascio, M. (2012, April 22). A look insiDDe Dunkin' Donuts first LEED certified restaurant and recently opened green restaurant in St. Petersburg, Florida. Retrieved November 20, 2014, from http://www.dunkindonuts.com/DDBlog/2012/04/a_look_insidde_dunki.html#sthash.aRIeS2mm.UlRosy6R.dpbs How do I dispose of...? (n.d.). Retrieved November 7, 2014, from http://www.acua.com/wastewizard/ Howard, B. (n.d.). What plastic recycling codes mean. Retrieved November 2, 2014, from http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/home/green-living/recycling-symbols-plastics-460321#slide-6 Hudson, K. (2013, September 30). 5 Reasons To Kick Your Disposable Coffee Cup Habit For Good. Retrieved November 20, 2014, from http://www.organicauthority.com/sanctuary/5-reasons-to-kick-your-disposable-coffee-cup-habit-for-good.html Koutny, M., Lemaire, J., & Delort, A. (2006). Biodegradation of polyethylene films with prooxidant additives. Chemosphere, 64(8), 1243-1252. Retrieved November 19, 2014, from Science Direct. Luna, T. (2013, August 20). Amid criticism, Dunkin' moves to replace foam cups. The Boston Globe. Retrieved November 16, 2014, from http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2013/08/19/dunkin-donuts-introduces-paper-coffee-cups-brookline/yYwPbxr5DOFy0eifBZj7aM/story.html

11

Marx, C., Kerr, C., San Filippo, D., Martin, P. (2009). Reusable Mugs for a Greener Campus: Replacing disposable drink containers with reusable mugs at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Retrieved from http://www.colorado.edu/envs/sites/default/files/attached-files/Reusable%20Mugs%20for%20a%20Greener%20campus.pdf.

Reusable Mug Program. (n.d.). Retrieved November 20, 2014, from http://www.bu.edu/sustainability/what-were-doing/waste-reduction/reusable-mug-program/ Appendix Reusable Mugs for Environmental Sustainability

Reusable or Disposable – you decide! 1. How often do you buy coffee or tea (hot or cold) on campus? [ ] never [ ] occasionally [ ] daily [ ] More than once daily 2. Where are you most likely to get your coffee or tea? Circle your answer Au Bon Pain Dunkin Donuts Campus Center Cafeteria The Beans List

N-wing Student Restaurant I do not buy coffee or tea on campus

3. Where are you least likely to get your coffee or tea? Circle your answer Au Bon Pain Dunkin Donuts Campus Center Cafeteria The Beans List

N-wing Student Restaurant I do not buy coffee or tea on campus

4. Have you considered using a reusable mug for your coffee or tea? [ ] yes [ ] No 5. Would you be interested in a school-issued reusable mug? [ ] yes [ ] No 6. What would be the benefits of a reusable mug? [ ] personal attachment [ ] better for the environment [ ] less chance of spill [ ] larger serving [ ] durable [ ] other ………………………….. 7. What would be the problems with a reusable mug?

12

[ ] having to clean it [ ] having to carry it around [ ] takes up space [ ] other ………………………. 8. If there were a discount in the price of coffee or tea in a reusable mug, how likely would you be to carry and use one? [ ] I would definitely carry one [ ] likely [ ] Not very likely [ ] Not at all likely I am a [ ] freshman [ ] sophomore [ ] junior [ ] senior [ ] graduate student

13

1

2

3