Forks and spoons that compost?

Imagine a disposable spoon that, instead of being plastic, is made from corn. When you’re finished eating your soup, you just toss your spoon in the compost bin. Now that’s sustainability.

“Sustainability” is an inescapable buzzword on the Chico State campus lately. Just after a second major sustainability conference and the passage of two new sustainability propositions in student elections, a committee plans to test the viability of using biodegradable utensils in the Bell Memorial Union Marketplace Café.

During the May 1-5 trial, the Marketplace Café will replace plastic cups, plates, bowls and silverware with sustainable, disposable products made from corn, potato, tapioca or polylactic acid. Rather than throw the biodegradable products away, students will dispose of them in bins designated for composting facilities.

The trial will allow a campus-wide sustainability committee (composed of representatives from the Chemistry and Engineering departments, A.S. Food Service, A.S. Recycling, faculty, staff and students) to test various products’ quality and decomposition time and identify any logistical problems that exist.

If the test run proves successful, Jeffery Soon, the associate director of the A.S. Food Service, hopes to permanently switch to biodegradable utensils in the Marketplace Café and expand the program to other locations as early as this fall. Chico State would be the first school in the CSU system to embrace this sustainable technology, reinforcing its position as a national leader on sustainability issues.

If adopted, the biodegradable plastic project could drastically reduce the amount of trash the university sends to the landfill. Dr. Joe Greene, a professor of mechanical engineering and manufacturing technologies who co-sponsored the effort, thinks it’s possible to divert up to 70 percent of Chico State’s waste.

“Every day, about four to six cubic yards of waste is removed from the BMU, from the food services,” he explained. “That’s a lot of waste. So, we’re hoping that, instead of sending that to the landfill, we can convert that into good compost at a composting facility.”

The project’s success will depend largely on the students. Throwing the new products in the trash or putting regular plastic and glass in the compost bin can compromise the project. In order to facilitate the change, the trial week will include a campaign to educate students about the amount of waste they generate and help them make more sustainable choices.

Greene is convinced Chico State students are ready for a more sustainable campus.

“I think we got a lot of good feedback from the different roundtable discussions we’ve had,” he said. “They’re really behind this. I think we’ll see more and more [sustainability projects] once the students understand what we’re doing on campus. They’ll be more and more excited about it. I think they’ll participate very easily. A lot of students here are very, very conscious of the environment.”

Even environmentally conscious students, though, tend to be conscious of their wallets as well. Greene says the biodegradable plastic project could be hindered by the products’ 30 to 50 percent cost increase over ordinary supplies. Some of that cost will inevitably be passed on to Chico State students.

“If they do want to have this in the fall,” Greene said, “if they want to be one of the first in California to go compostable, environmentally friendly and renewable, they might have to pay a little bit more for their cups and plates. It might go up a nickel for them. Not too much.”

Greene figures if the experiment works correctly, the savings on waste disposal costs will defer much of the new expense. The trial will allow Greene to test that hypothesis.

After the trial in the Marketplace Café, Greene and others will have a better idea of the project’s costs and challenges. For now, the movement toward sustainability on the Chico State campus has gained an almost unstoppable momentum.