These aluminum water bottles have replaced plastic water bottles at Coastal Carolina University concession stands. (Courtesy photo)
Recycling bins at Coastal Carolina University help students and staff know what goes where. (Photo by Casey Jones/casey.jones@myhorrynews.com)
Jeremy Monday, senior director of campus environments at Coastal Carolina University, stands beside one the 300-plus recycling/trash bins on the campus in Conway. (Photo by Casey Jones/casey.jones@myhorrynews.com)
Reporter
These aluminum water bottles have replaced plastic water bottles at Coastal Carolina University concession stands. (Courtesy photo)
Recycling bins at Coastal Carolina University help students and staff know what goes where. (Photo by Casey Jones/casey.jones@myhorrynews.com)
Jeremy Monday, senior director of campus environments at Coastal Carolina University, stands beside one the 300-plus recycling/trash bins on the campus in Conway. (Photo by Casey Jones/casey.jones@myhorrynews.com)
The single-use plastic bottles of water sold at Coastal Carolina University have been replaced with recyclable aluminum cans.
The teal-colored cans debuted at the baseball and softball concession stands this spring. They’ve been distributed at CCU catered events. And they sat beside the chair of graduates and faculty during the May 2024 commencement exercises last week.
They even got a plug from CCU President Michael Benson during his report to the board of trustees at a Friday, May 3, meeting, and each trustee got a complimentary bottle. They’ll also be rolled out at other athletic venues — including Brooks Stadium, where the football game-day waste diversion rate is an award-winning 80% — and other locations where CCU sells water.
Benson said it’s part of the university’s effort to eliminate single-use plastic containers.
“These can be used over and over and over again,” he said.
But the bottles are just a small part of the Sustain Coastal program, the university’s effort to meet the needs of today without squandering the resources for future generations.
The 16.9 ounce CCU-branded cans feature Chauncey the Chanticleer, CCU’s proud and fierce rooster mascot. That’s at least part of the attraction.
“Because we branded it Coastal, people are holding onto it longer,” said Sandy Baldridge-Adrian, assistant vice president of CCU Auxiliary Enterprises.
The water is sourced from and bottled at artesian springs in a protected rainforest in Costa Rica by RainForest Artesian Water. “From the RainForest to Teal Nation,” the bottles read. CCU was tipped off to the Costa Rican company by Aramark Collegiate Hospitality, the university’s food service vendor.
“They knew we were looking for more aluminum vessels and eliminating our single-use plastics and our plastics on campus in general,” Baldridge-Adrian said.
“We owe it to the Earth,” CCU Senior Director of Campus Environments Jeremy Monday said of eliminating single-use plastics, citing the great Pacific garbage patch, and microplastics in the food chain.
The Costa Rican water supplier is a distant but Earth-friendly source. Natural pressure brings the water to the surface, no energy-intensive pumping required. And the company uses cans made from 25% recycled aluminum, advertises ”carbon neutral shipping,” and plants trees to offset its carbon footprint.
For the consumer, who pays $5 a bottle at CCU concessions, it means clean, cold water in a container that can be reused, and eventually recycled. There are more than 100 water refill stations across the campus, including at athletic venues.
“Instead of them having to go back for three or four bottles of water, they can purchase one and continually refill it during the game,” Baldridge-Adrian said.
It tastes good, too, she said. “I personally enjoy it. I think it tastes great and it stays nice and cold in this bottle.”
Plastic souvenir cups once used for concessions by the CCU Food Crew have also been replaced by reusable, recyclable aluminum cups that plenty of people take home, including Monday.
“I have several at the house,” Monday said. “It’s a great back-porch cup.”
More importantly, he said, “we’ve transitioned from a souvenir cup that was a mix of plastics and couldn’t be recycled … to an infinitely recyclable aluminum cup that’s become a desirable item in the community.”
CCU has made great strides in diverting garbage from the Horry County landfill — Monday said about 600 tons a year including construction waste are diverted — and it’s just another small step toward the university’s goal of diverting 50% of all waste by 2030.
“That goal is inspirational, aspirational and achievable,” Monday said.
The diversion rate at CCU went from about 20% in 2014 to 35% in 2023. More than 150 recycle bins were added on campus during that time period.
CCU recycles the usual stuff — aluminum, paper, cardboard, steel, and certain plastics. Also, cooking oil, motor oil, wooden pallets …; “anything we can possibly recycle,” Monday said.
The campus-wide water refill stations also contribute to the goal. “You don’t need to have a single-use water bottle every day. You can have your own water bottle,” Monday said.
Other Sustain Coastal initiatives include farmers markets, Earth Day events, salvage sales, pop-up thrift stores, a community garden and ongoing educational campaigns through community outreach, social media, orientation information fairs and other on-campus events.
A big part of reaching the 35% diversion rate was partnering with the Horry County Solid Waste Authority to accept CCU’s organic waste, which includes food scraps and food-soiled paper plates and wrappers from 14 food service locations, and turn it into compost. More than one million pounds of CCU scraps have helped feed HCSWA’s compost beds in the past decade, and some of it comes full circle, returning to the campus as compost for greenhouses, flower beds and landscaping.
The Food Crew also takes care not to over-prepare or over-purchase, and finds creative ways to keep the surplus out of the waste stream if those conditions occur, Baldridge-Adrian said.
“If we have an overproduction of food, and it’s been held at a safe temperature, we package it into smaller, reusable packaging and take it to (be sold at) the CINO Pantries,” which she described as CCU convenience stores. The food is sold at discount prices to students and staff.
During the COVID lockdown, when CCU was stuck with food it couldn’t use, it was donated to shelters and food banks, she said.
To help reach the 50% waste diversion rate, CCU will add a residential food scrap recycling program, and will update recycling bins campus-wide to also accept food scraps. Sustain Coastal will also continue the transition from plastics, and double down on education.
Across campus, the goal is to make it easy for students and staff to recycle with more than 300 standardized recycling bins. Each bin has two receptacles — one for garbage and the other for recyclables. Instructions on the bins explain what goes where. And Sustain Coastal takes it from there.
Sustain Coastal has grown from a single staffer with one student worker in 2005, to three full-time employees and 17 student workers, known as the Green Team.
Each day the students collect and sort recyclables from the bins and prepare them for shipment. Other students work as Eco Reps — basically student influencers — who make presentations to students and collaborate with the community to promote sustainability.
Even the recycling bins at CCU are recycled; they’re made from plastic milk jugs. Next year the bins will be updated to also allow for food scrap recycling. Bicycle racks across campus, and many other items, including the bridge over Turtle Pond, are also made from recycled milk jugs.
“Recycling works two ways,” Monday said. “We support recycling by buying recycled things.”
It’s all part of an effort to establish CCU as a leader in sustainability, and a model for others to follow.
“We feel like we can be the hub for sustainability. We have the resources, the capabilities and the knowledge to educate and create a better CCU and Horry County,” Monday said.
Reach Casey Jones at 843-488-7261 or casey.jones@myhorrynews.com.
Reporter
{{description}}
Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.
Your comment has been submitted.
Reported
There was a problem reporting this.
Log In
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.
Your browser is out of date and potentially vulnerable to security risks.
We recommend switching to one of the following browsers: