UCSD Bans the Use of Styrofoam on Campus

Convinced by three marine biology graduate students that their use of Styrofoam constitutes an environmental hazard, UC San Diego officials have agreed to ban the non-biodegradable substance from the campus.

The ban, which will formally take effect in March, is already being practiced by the food services department, which stopped dispensing Styrofoam cups, bowls and plates in November.

University officials say they are now drafting policy that prohibits the use of polystyrene foam or other “fully halogenated chlorofluorocarbon plastics” unless there are no reasonable alternatives. UCSD officials say the move will make theirs the first campus in the state to ban the material campus-wide.

“We’re doing away with Styrofoam eating utensils, we’re not sending anything interdepartmentally with Styrofoam packing . . . and we’re asking (vendors) to ship to us in a biodegradable packing, something other than Styrofoam,” said Ken Jay, an administrative analyst who is helping draft the ban language for the university’s policy and procedure manual.

Styrofoam is inflated with chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which make good coolants and good insulators but wreak havoc on the environment, according to David Wilmot, one of the graduate students who led the movement to ban the product at UCSD.

Direct Result of Campaign

Numerous studies have shown that CFCs do not break down until they are in the upper atmosphere, where chlorine molecules react with oxygen molecules and destroy the ozone that protects people from the sun’s ultraviolet rays.

The UCSD policy, which affects vendors bringing food onto campus as well as individual departments, is a direct result of a campaign by Wilmot, 27; Craig Cary, 34, and Don Croll, 31, all marine biology students at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UCSD spokeswoman Win Cox said.

“We really felt that UCSD and Scripps should be taking a leading role in terms of environmental policy and environmental conservation,” Wilmot said. “Since we’re . . . an outstanding leader in science, and UCSD as well, we should not be lagging behind.”

Styrofoam bans have been informally adopted at other locations or schools, but none has created what amounts to virtually a Styrofoam-free environment.

At UC Santa Cruz, for example, food services officials agreed last spring to stop using Styrofoam containers for take-out food as part of a pilot project, campus spokesman Tom O’Leary said, but there is no university policy against using the product.

The city of Berkeley has a new ordinance banning the use of all CFC-processed polystyrene by restaurants and by retail food vendors who serve take-out food, but UC Berkeley spokesman Ray Colvig said the municipal ordinance does not affect the state-run campus.

At UC Santa Barbara, food retailers in the university center expect to stop using Styrofoam by June, but again, there is no campus-wide policy against its use.

Now that a UCSD campus ban is imminent, the graduate students are taking their ban proposal statewide. They have written UC President David Gardner requesting that a similar Styrofoam ban policy be adopted systemwide. They are confident of support “at some level,” Wilmot said.

Because contracting for vendors is done on a campus-by-campus basis, Paul West, a spokesman for Gardner’s office, said any ban against Styrofoam would probably have to be done campus-by-campus.

Can Make a Statement

Nevertheless, Wilmot hopes Gardner will set down a policy that bans the product in individual departments, at university functions and wherever possible. “He can still make a statement,” Wilmot said. “We’ll certainly encourage him to make a statement by enacting a Styrofoam policy, even though it may be limited.”

Gardner was at a Board of Regents meeting Thursday at UC Santa Barbara and could not be reached.

At UCSD, Steve Relyea, vice chancellor for business affairs, said it was difficult to say how and when the ban could be taken to all the UC campuses.

Director of Dining Services Brian Klippel said the food services staff made the decision in September to switch from Styrofoam to paper products. “The graduate students said we were killing marine life, which in fact is true,” he said. “We decided that (the ban) made sense.”

Klippel said the seven restaurants and two cafeterias run by UCSD’s food services have not used Styrofoam since their stock ran out in November.

Other changes have also been made in the spirit of ecological balance, Klippel said, including recycling plastic knives and forks, switching from paper to plastic serving trays, and offering a five cent discount on coffee to customers who bring their own cups.

Wini McGuane, associate director of dining services said the food services department did not expect to lose money by offering the discount because the cost of paper cups was so high.

Some Cost to Go Up

In fact, the switch from Styrofoam to paper will cause the amount spent by food services on disposable products to double, McGuane said. “No doubt it will eventually cause price increases to our sales. It won’t be outrageous, that’s for sure, but there’s no question that some of what we do will go up.”

But it’s worth it, she said.

“Styrofoam is forever and that’s a scary statement. . . . I don’t want to have to answer to that 200 years from now, that my generation caused all this stuff to be littering the planet.”

UCSD’s new policy will also be written into the university’s bidding process; companies submitting proposals and requests to sell products on campus will be told of the new campus policy in writing and asked to comply.

A university center opening on campus in April will house a Taco Bell, a Round Table Pizza, an Espresso Roma coffee shop, a Chinese restaurant, and a frozen yogurt store--all have agreed not to use Styrofoam, said Jim Carruthers, director of the center.

The ban is not expected to be 100% effective. “It may not be very thorough at all to begin with . . . an exception will be made if a producer says there’s no way he can change his production line to use an alternative packing material,” Jay said. “That would be very, very common.”

Styrofoam that has been found on campus or that has arrived as packing material from computer companies is now being recycled.