Kickstart: A plastics diet at SUNY colleges

The State University of New York — with 64 campuses and nearly 400,000 students — will phase out single-use plastics across its network of schools.

While SUNY officials didn't specify a timeline for the project, they said in a March 5 announcement that it will be universal throughout the system. Currently two schools, SUNY New Paltz and SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, have "taken significant steps" to cut back on single-use plastics, but the new project will be a "uniform policy across … SUNY."

"SUNY's direct action to make our operations more sustainable complements our research and education to create a better future for all," Chancellor John B. King Jr. said in a news release.

College executives noted the low recycling rate for plastics in the U.S. as they announced the program.

It will have a "staged elimination of single-use plastics designed to take advantage of the continued development of new products and processes for a future plastic-free environment," SUNY noted. "Items covered in the policy include bags, beverage bottles, foodservice products, utensils, plastic wrap and packaging films."

Meanwhile, the National Association for PET Container Resources (NAPCOR) is taking issue with bans on single-use PET bottles, maintaining that PET is a more sustainable choice.

In a March 7 news release, NAPCOR cited a ban on single-use plastics at the San Francisco airport that has, in part, seen the replacement of 9,000 water bottles sold each day. Citing a life cycle analysis study it conducted in 2023, NAPCOR says using aluminum rather than PET in each of those bottles would increase CO2 equivalent emissions by 1,100 metric tons, since aluminum requires more energy to produce.

But it's not clear why NAPCOR targeted the San Francisco ban, or why they did so now. The airport implemented its ban on the sale of plastic water bottles in 2019 and expanded it to all beverages in 2021.

The Plastic Free SFO program also covered the cost of adding more water filling stations, so there's not necessarily a one-to-one replacement of plastic water bottles for aluminum or glass ones.

Five people in California are facing more than $140 million in restitution and administration fees following an investigation into a recycling fraud scheme state officials say lasted for years.

It was, as PN's Jim Johnson writes, "no nickle-and-dime operation."

A state agency called the Recycle Fraud Team say the individuals, managers at the private Recycling Services Alliance Inc., manipulated scales to make it look like they were collecting more containers that were eligible for bottle deposit returns than they were.

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