ABC’s War on Waste has prompted Charles Sturt University campuses across NSW to go green, with the Wagga campus going one step further to create a plastic free future.
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CSU’s nine cafes across the Bathurst, Orange, Dubbo, Wagga Wagga and Albury-Wodonga campuses churn through around 150,000 disposable coffee cups.
CSU Green formed a partnership with CHEERS outlet business which runs all the cafes across the campuses.
CSU wanted to push forward with sustainability initiatives to maintain their standard and reputation as Australia’s ‘first carbon neutral university’.
The sustainability project officer at CSU’s Wagga campus Kym Witney-Soanes, said the War on Waste initiative began in August 2017 targeting a range of plastics but primarily focusing on the disposable coffee cup.
“In the first four months, from August until December last year, we reduced coffee cups by 50 per cent,” Ms Witney-Soanes said.
A Wagga specific initiative, started by a CHEERS staffer, Kirsten Shaw, has seen the introduction of a ‘Mug Library’, giving those without or those not wishing to purchase a reusable coffee cup the chance to use donated mugs.
Among the disposable coffee cups, the university has minimised plastic bags and this year it will focus on phasing out plastic straws and looking at alternative food packaging options.
“We do need to change the culture of using plastic but it’s entirely possibly through people management and negotiations,” she said.
“We negotiated a 50 cent discount when people brought their own cups, so we’re using incentives to encourage good sustainable behaviour.
“In 10 months, we have diverted over 80,000 cups from landfill and we have stopped using plastic bags on campus.”
Ms Witney-Soanes said CSU tries to integrate students and staff through all initiatives, in learning, assessments and research opportunities.
“We’ve linked the War on Waste to curriculum, particularly the school of communication, like PR and the media, as well as creative industries, like fashion,” she said.
“We’ve had about 11 different classes who have used the War on Waste as assessment tasks.”
CSU’s sustainability initiatives have focused on educating people on the impacts of plastic and waste as well as the consequences of purchasing bottled water.
Hydration stations are situated across campuses to encourage people to bring their own water bottle and fill up for free, saving money and reducing single-use plastics.
CSU branded reusable cups are available for purchase on each campus and people are also welcome to bring their own.
According to Ms Witney-Soanes the total benefit of the War on Waste campaign has saved just over $97,000 in the first 10 months.
The CSU War on Waste initiative has recently won two awards:
- In May 2018, external recognition winning a national Tertiary Access Group award for the best commercial retail campaign.
- In July 2018, internal recognition for a CSU Strong University Award to the CHEERS team.
Ms Witney-Soanes has noticed a significant behavioural change of students and staff bringing their own water bottles and reusable coffee cups to university.