Yet another environmentally-friendly initiative is being introduced to UW-Eau Claire with the goal of helping the campus cut out single-use plastics.

The Break Free From Plastic pledge has been adopted by numerous colleges throughout the United States and is carried out in partnership with the Post Landfill Action Network (PLAN).

In practice, this pledge involves establishing a roadmap and a task force to cut out single-use plastics, like plastic bags and non-reusable food containers, from participating college campuses.

“PLAN supports students through a variety of different programs aimed at college and university students who are working within the zero waste movement,” plastic campaigns coordinator at PLAN Savannah Robledo said. “The Break Free From Plastic pledge launched in 2019, took a little break in 2020 as many things did during the Covid pandemic and then was relaunched in 2022 when I joined as the plastic pledge director.”

Since then, the Break Free From Plastic pledge and PLAN’s other campaigns have grown in size, emphasizing hands-on work with students to promote sustainability. 

“Since its inception, [the Break Free From Plastic pledge] has had 21 campuses sign on,” Robledo said. “It is what we believe is the most comprehensive accessibility centered single-use plastics pledge a campus can take. We work with students to run campaigns on their campuses to encourage the president or chancellor of their office to sign on.”

According to Robledo, PLAN’s student-centered approach also walks organizers through the steps towards their sustainability goal and provides them with resources to support them along the way. 

“We create manuals and quick guides for students on a variety of different zero-waste areas and topics that are present on campus,” Robledo said. “All of us were students at some point working within the zero waste movement, and so we think about what we could have utilized as students.”

Robledo said PLAN has a variety of manuals for students to access on their resources page.

Spearheading this launch at UW-Eau Claire was third-year political science student Lauren Jordahl, who serves as the education and communications coordinator at the Student Sustainability Office (SOS).

Jordahl said she was originally introduced to the idea at a sustainability conference at UW-Madison, which had previously implemented the initiative successfully, inspiring her to do further research into PLAN and the Break Free From Plastic pledge.

“I was reading the stories, and I was like, ‘This is definitely something that we could achieve here, and I think a lot of students would be interested in it,’” Jordahl said. 

Leading the efforts of this campaign, Jordahl said she has worked with faculty, PLAN team members and the university to determine what the pledge will look like in practice.

“Basically, it’s a pledge that the university is going to break free from single-use plastic in the long run,” Jordahl said. “This especially focuses on things like dining or student events where single-use plastic is being used … but it also includes the campaign and includes an education program, working with stakeholders to see what things we need to change and a petition which students support to get action.”

Jordahl said her goal for this pledge is to “make the campus more aware that we have a voice.”

“We’re just hoping to engage students and show our administration this is what’s important to us,” Jordahl said. 

Fourth-year ecology and environmental biology student Kristin O’Brien, also the student director of SOS, said that Jordahl’s role in this project has been essential, as she’s seen it through from her original idea to now, preparing for implementation. 

“This is Lauren’s thing that she came up with — she initiated it, and she’s going through with it,” O’Brien said.

Jordahl said one of the most important things students can do to support sustainability is “keep talking about it,” and O’Brien said that sparking conversation about why sustainability matters and what students can do also helps. 

While the project is still in its early stages, there are still several ways to support its mission, Jordahl said. 

“If [students] follow our Instagram and keep looking at posts — I’ll be doing biweekly posts — that would help,” Jordahl said. “I’m also hoping to work with an event coordinator with SOS. I’m hoping to have little events, so keep an eye out for that.”

Garrison can be reached at [email protected].