The Grove | Valencia College

Valencia Joins the #LastStraw Movement

Oct

2

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A Message from Jeffrey Filko, Director, Auxiliary Services

We’re joining the #LastStraw movement, a campaign that brings awareness to plastic pollution — such as cutlery, cups, bottles and, yes, straws.

To promote more sustainable practices within the Valencia Community and also based on feedback from the Student Government Association, all cafeteria operations on all campuses will switch to compostable straws. Using some sustainability grant money from PepsiCo, and partnering with our food services contractor, Valley Foods, we will purchase a year’s supply of 120,000 beeswax-coated paper straws. That’s 10,000 less straws every month in the landfills, or which could end up in our lakes, streams and oceans, where 8 million metric tons of plastic end up annually or equal to five grocery bags of plastic along each foot of coastline globally. These straws cost significantly more than traditional plastic ones, but with this partnership, we are making it happen.

Please note that our coffee shops will not switch immediately, as they are operating under Starbucks’ guidelines, which will also switch to alternative straws and products. For more information on the Starbucks initiative, click here.

Don’t forget — in the waste hierarchy, reducing and reusing come before recycling. So opting for a reusable straw or skipping the straw all together, helps reduce waste as well as plastic usage.

If you have any questions, please contact me at jfilko@valenciacollege.edu or 407-299-5000, extension 1709.

Related Tags: sustainability