Purchase’s First Major Step Towards Eliminating Single Use Plastic
July 17, 2024
Open gallery
Content taken from the news story with the same title.
Grace Afflerbach
Sustainability Coordinator
All vending machines on campus now have less single use plastic containers thanks to the Sustainability Advisory and Outreach Committee (SAOC) and the Purchase College Association (PCA).
Single use plastics has been an issue that many sustainability advocates on campus have wanted to address for a long time. The plastics sub-committee of SAOC was formed in 2023 to try and tackle Purchase’s single use plastic consumption in a more robust way outside of the typical monthly SAOC meetings.
With our vending contract set to expire, the Purchase College Association and Office of Sustainability had a great opportunity to make a sustainable change for the campus community. With backing from SUNY’s newly released Single Use Plastics Phase Out Plan our goal was to switch out plastic beverage bottles with non-plastic alternatives, like cans, glass, or cartons. Thankfully, our new vending company was eager to help us make this switch. Now, you will find mostly non-plastic containers throughout all vending machines on campus!