Make a Change

While a lot of people carry around a re-usable mug, it is much less so with cutlery. A ton of single-use forks, knives and spoons get thrown out, in particular with catered events. If you order catering from UBC for meetings and committees, you will get a lot of cups and cutlery. For large events this will be hard to avoid. However, this happens even if you do internal events in your own office/department. People grab the single-use cutlery because they tend to forget their own cutlery that most people have at their desk anyway. As so often, waste is created based on convenience. Let’s make an effort to encourage colleagues to use their own cutlery, e.g. when we send out event invitations. A simple reminder to bring cutlery could be enough to help re-use waste.

Let’s start with the easiest thing to reduce single use plastic which just goes into the landfill. If you bring your own mug, you not only save the planet, but money as well. Most coffee shops on campus deduct 10-15 cents when you bring your re-usable container!