Like most of you, I buy food from the Commons that comes in disposable packaging.  Having a meal plan, I feel like using some of this disposable packaging is inevitable.  That doesn’t mean I like using so much disposable packaging, and I’ve tried to find ways to reduce my waste.

This semester I started carrying a reusable, lightweight “spork” around in my backpack so that I don’t have to get new plastic silverware every time I buy food.  I keep my spork in a zip-loc in my backpack and try to remember to wash it after I use it.

Plastic silverware can’t be recycled, so it just ends up in our landfills. Plastic is also made from petroleum, and each item has a broader impact: from the extraction of the natural resources, to manufacturing it into plastic and molding it into a spoon, to packaging and shipping to UMBC, just so it can be used one time, then tossed in the trash and sit in a landfill. Imagine if no UMBC students used disposable plastic silverware!  We can help develop better ways of doing things, and continue carrying on these new habits and perspectives that we learn at UMBC for the rest of our lives. 

If you are interested in getting your own spork, you can buy them online for as low as $3.  

Are you doing anything to try to reduce your waste from the Commons?  Maybe using a reusable coffee mug?  Not getting a lid and straw with every drink?  Not taking a plastic bag?  Share your sustainable actions in the comments below!

As an Eco-Ambassador, I'm also working with the Sustainability Coordinator to find ways to reduce our consumption and waste in the dining hall and beyond. From improving signage and education, to exploring new policies and practices. One you start looking deeper- you may realize each of your actions can have a greater impact and together, we can make a huge difference! 

- Molissa, UMBC Eco-Ambassador