It has been nearly six years since COVID first caused nationwide shutdowns. However, COVID’s legacy is still visible at Colby. In an effort to continue on-campus classes through the worst of the pandemic, single-use plastic became much more widely used everywhere, including on campus. Students were switched to a three-swipe-per-day meal plan, packaged in plastic, in an effort to stop the spread of the virus. The plastic water bottle ban, in place since 2011, was scrapped. These ‘temporary’ changes are still in place today.
One place on campus where the lasting change is particularly visible is the Spa. The Spa has always served quick, grab-and-go food. But before COVID, it featured a sandwich bar, bagels, and dramatically less plastic packaging. Back in 2011, one student described it as an “upscale Starbucks,” and it was somewhere you could meet your professor for lunch. Food was served on metal trays, and students brought to-go mugs for their coffee. It was open from 8am-1am and
still served late-night quesadillas, but seemed like a real dining hall. Today, the Spa could accurately be described as a sea of plastic. Whether you want cheese and crackers, a salad, or grapes, your food will come in a single-use plastic clamshell container. This may have been a necessity during COVID, but this waste has long overstayed its welcome.
Plastic water bottles are back, too. The “Take Back the Tap Campaign” was a three-year student-led effort to eliminate bottled water on campus and promote sustainable alternatives. The initiative culminated on Earth Day in 2011, when the remaining bottled water stock was removed from the shelves in the student center. Sarah Sorenson `11 played the key role in organizing and leading the campaign to success. As part of the effort, Colby Athletics announced that starting in the fall of 2011, teams would stop purchasing cases of bottled water for games and road trips. This campaign seemed to mark an important milestone in Colby’s sustainability history, especially in regards to student leadership driving change.
However, all of this progress faced a major setback during COVID. In an effort to reduce the spread of the virus, Colby temporarily disabled water fountains and bottle refill stations, limiting access to tap water across campus. With reusable options no longer convenient or sanitary under health guidelines, many students and staff reverted to using single-use plastic water bottles. While the locked fountains were temporary, it seems that the use of plastic water bottles was not, as they quietly have made their way back into campus life.
The sustainable practices we lost during COVID weren’t there by coincidence. Students like Sorenson fought to implement them, and Colby’s environmental ethic was a practice as much as a marketing tool. But we’re at college for just four years, and student body memory is fleeting. Colby’s shift in plastic use is part of a larger global trend since the pandemic that has contributed to millions of tons of excess plastic, but it’s something that we have the power to reverse. Colby has already proven that it can reduce plastic waste; the last few years have been the exception and not the rule. It’s time to get back to where we used to be.
– Brynne Robbins `26 and Jane Kulevich`29
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