A group of students at UVic have launched a pilot program in an attempt to reduce the amount of coffee cup waste on campus.
The project is being led by Surfrider UVic, a student group focussed on engaging and educating students on plastic pollution.
Together, with University Food Services and the Office of Campus Planning, Surfrider UVic has introduced reusable beverage cups at two cafes on campus which they hope will create a culture shift away from single-use disposable cups.
This endeavour has been in the works since 2021, when the club campaigned against single-use plastic cups on campus. Surfrider UVic launched a petition for this campaign that garnered over 2,700 signatures.
According to the club, approximately 4,000 single-use coffee cups were being sold and thrown out at UVic every business day.
They add that most of these end up being discarded in the wrong place—either in recycling, bins, compost bins or being littered on campus.
In 2022, UVic conducted an audit of their campus waste and determined that an estimated 19,188 kilograms of non-waxed coffee cups would be sent to the landfill annually.
“We knew something had to change,” said Matt Miller, a UVic PhD student in Oceanography who has been working on the reusable cup initiative since 2018.
“As a student myself, we recognize how busy students are, and why there is a large demand for ‘to-go’ food and beverage packaging.”
Miller added that the current incentive to bring a reusable cup is just a 25-cent discount for and most customers do not take advantage of it.
To change the status quo of cup usage, the club landed on creating a free-to-borrow reusable cup system.
“Since the BC and federal governments recently enacted bans on many single-use plastic items, we decided to transition our campaign to focus on reusables,” said Miller.
“We wanted to discourage UVic from simply switching to another form of single-use material, like paper. Research is showing that reusables are the most sustainable packaging option when reused enough times. That’s what led us to propose a pilot for reusable to-go beverage cups.”
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The initiative received $25,000 in funding from the university and partnered with Vancouver-based Reusables.com to purchase the reusable cups and implement related infrastructure and technologies.
The pilot officially kicked off during student orientation week at the Port and Boardwalk cafes on campus.
How it works is when an individual orders the beverage of their choice, they may opt-in to receive a stainless-steel reusable travel mug to borrow.
Similarly to a library card membership, “borrowing” a reusable mug requires signing up for a digital QR code.
Involved individuals can download the Reusables app which will provide reminders to return the cup, identify the locations to return the cups and allow users to track their individual impact and the collective impact created by UVic through this endeavour.
This program is live and Surfrider UVic say they hope that it is just a first step towards drastically reducing waste on campus.
