In an effort to prioritize sustainability throughout Cal State Long Beach, 49er Shops Inc. expects to stop distributing plastic bags by fall 2012.
There are too many plastic bags already in inventory to make the transition immediately, according to 49er Shops Director of Communications Rosa Hernandez-Henderson.
“We’ve made arrangements to have these bags and, for us not to use them, that’s not a smart business choice,” Hernandez-Henderson said.
The plastic bag ban would extend to any 49er Shops vendor outside of the University Student Union or Student Recreation and Wellness Center. The ban would include residential dining, the Nugget Grill and Pub, Beach on Second Street and outside partnerships in the University Dining Hall, such as Panda Express.
Associated Students Inc. Senate passed a resolution, written by Sen. Lizelle Felix and Sen. Sagar Ramachandra, with bagging alternatives for the 49er Shops.
The resolution serves to highlight specific pros and cons, including cost of alternatives.
The University Bookstore currently has a selection of reusable bags for sale.
The plastic bag ban is only a small part of a campaign to create a corporate culture revolving around sustainability, Hernandez-Henderson said.
“Starbucks, for example, has a great corporate culture of recycling, of making sure that most of their stuff is recyclable or compostable,” Hernandez-Henderson said. “I think, as more time comes, when there’s more opportunities to decide between the products, [49er Shops] is leaning more toward sustainability.”
Hernandez-Henderson said 49er Shops will continue promoting sustainability by monitoring the amount of waste its products create.
A team of colleagues of all 49er Shops divisions, called the Green Team, is dedicated to analyzing their sustainability efforts, such as efficiency lighting and researching compostable properties.
“I know, right now, we’re working with a couple of local farmers to a farm-to-table program in the Chart Room,” Hernandez-Henderson said.
The Green Team is also working on replacing the current campus-wide vending machines with Energy Star machines.
“As a nonprofit organization, a lot of people think we don’t care about the money, that we’re about not trying to make money,” Hernandez-Henderson said. “That’s not our mission. The mission is that, after we pay the lights, we pay the salaries … the bills, literally everything that we make goes back to the university.”
According to Hernandez-Henderson, 49er Shops’ first wave of sustainability was when the current plastic bags were first introduced because the plastic is biodegradable. Later, student employees were encouraged to ask customers if they needed a bag rather than give them out by default.
The promotion of eBooks and textbook rentals at the University Bookstore was also part of a sustainability effort to provide cost-efficient alternatives to students, Hernandez-Henderson said.
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