Manhattan College students learn it's easy being green

It started as a semester-long project for Pam Chasek’s environmental politics class at Manhattan College.

Using one of the 17 sustainable development goals the United Nations has pushed for global implementation by 2030, Chasek’s class broke into smaller groups to examine dorm, paper, food and plastic waste on campus, all while seeking out ways to reduce poverty. It’s all in-line with two of the U.N.’s green goals of responsible consumption and production, and no poverty.

“She’s always been good at taking a global thing and bringing it home, doing what we could do on campus,” said Lois Harr, the vice president of campus ministry and social action.

While some elements like paper, plastic and food waste are universal, the dynamics of a college campus can present unique challenges.

Printing, for example, is a significant issue for students, Chasek said. Many professors want homework and other assignments printed on paper, and Manhattan’s printers don’t allow double-sided printing.

Yet, all it took was a bit of communication with Manhattan College’s administration, which added a double-sided option to printers within 24 hours.

It’s helped, said junior environmental studies major Meya Hayes, but there’s still so much more that can be done.

“Teachers still want you to print out 30 or 40 pages for homework when I could look at it on my laptop,” she said. “When you print something in the library, it gives you the option to print double-sided. But I think most people don’t do it anyway.”

The group also pushed for the installation of cold-air hand dryers in bathrooms to reduce paper towel waste, but ran into issues in some of Manhattan’s older buildings.

“A lot of wiring will not permit the installation of the dryers,” Chasek said. “It’s an electricity issue more than a desire to keep using paper towels. Unfortunately, that may not be easily rectified.”

Still, even when solutions are not easy or possible, Chasek’s students were still learning.

“Good for students to learn that, to figure out what is possible,” she said. “They’re trying to figure out if there’s a way to reduce paper waste in public bathrooms. That’s a work in progress.”

When it comes to plastic waste, Manhattan College’s biggest culprits appeared to be large plastic containers used for take-out from dining facilities as well as plastic drinking bottles.

Students proposed three alternatives to plastic food containers — one small biodegradable container, a recyclable folded paper container, and a hard plastic lunchbox-style reusable container. None of the options have been yet adopted by the college, although Chasek remains hopeful student groups will keep pushing for changes to be made.

Hayes is working to start a new club on campus with the environment in mind. Her group, Mother Earth, will aim to bring more women into the fight for the environment, encouraging them to learn about the environment and how they can help in their own neighborhood. The club kicks off this month, and she’s hoping to recruit plenty of students for the cause.

“My friends and I are really trying to push this,” Hayes said. “We’ve been trying to get it started for a while.”

Club members are expected to attend lectures and panels, learning how they can make environmentally friendly choices on campus, and off.

While waste reduction is still a work in progress, Manhattan’s fair trade certification provides an ongoing way to reduce poverty and tune students in to ethically sourced produced goods.

Fair trade ensures products are produced sustainably and priced fairly, so that local producers can make a fair living, Harr said. Manhattan College became fair-trade certified in 2014 and has continued to keep up practices by selling fair trade T-shirts and sweatshirts in the campus book store, and stocking fair trade coffee and snacks around campus.

Like Chasek’s project, Manhattan’s fair trade standards set an example for students to follow.

“You have to show that you’re conscious consumers,” Harr said. “You realize that the world is interconnected. My cup of coffee is connected to someone who made his living raising coffee plants. We should pay enough that that person can make a living. Our bargains are on someone else’s shoulders.”

While Chasek, Harr and Hayes continue to work toward a greener campus, Chasek says she’s satisfied with the progress they’ve made so far. She believes that bringing global issues to a campus level will show her students how hard it can be to make real change.

“If they see how hard it is on campus, they can imagine how hard it is for cities and countries,” Chasek said. “Just because you have a set of targets doesn’t mean it’s going happen. As someone who’s been pushing for more sustainable practices for 19 years, it takes a long time.”