The Office of Sustainability launched the Fill it Forward Challenge last month to celebrate Earth Month. It was part of the larger Fill it Forward program designed to reduce plastic pollution by encouraging people to use reusable water bottles.
The Stony Brook challenge concluded on April 30. The winner was Kitoko Melton, an undergraduate psychology major who recorded 214 refills. As a reward, the Office of Sustainability gave them a free Ocean water bottle and custom “Be Sustainable” stickers.
Additionally, a total of 813 refills were recorded on campus. According to the Fill it Forward app, that is equivalent to almost 789 pounds of carbon emissions saved, 24 pounds of waste diverted, and almost 5 pounds of ocean pollution prevented due to reduced single-use plastics.
Erin Kluge, sustainability coordinator for Stony Brook’s West campus, said the challenge to scan stickers at refillable water stations was popular on campus. The number of participants exceeded her expectations.
“I did not have a refill number in mind,” Kluge said. “I was merely hoping to reach a range of students to increase awareness of single-use plastics, and I believe this challenge did that successfully and then some. It was great to see all of the new SBU users join in and contribute whether the refill count was in the single digits to triple digits.”
Each refill also donated $0.02 to charities focused on improving water infrastructure in underserved communities. Most of the money raised during the challenge was donated to the Access to Water in Bolivia Project. Hosted by Water for People Canada, the project is improving water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) systems in various districts of Bolivia. The rest of the proceeds went towards creating piped system tap stands in Madagascar and providing water access, filtration systems and WASH curriculums to schools in Latin America, East Africa and Nepal.
But the end of April does not mean the end of Fill it Forward. The Office of Sustainability is planning to launch more campaigns next semester.
“We are hoping to have challenges for residence halls, class years, departments, and employees,” Kluge said. “We encourage students to keep an eye out for updates on our Instagram and tabling events in the Fall.”
Additionally, students, faculty and staff can continue scanning and tracking their refills by following four simple steps:
- Pick up a free scanning sticker at the one of the refill stations installed in academic and residential buildings across campus.
- Stick it to the dishwasher-safe refillable water bottle or mug you bring to campus.
- Download the Fill it Forward app onto your smartphone.
- Start scanning every time you refill. With each scan you can easily track waste diverted, see emissions saved and observe how much ocean pollution has been avoided. Each refill station also has an electronic counter that will display the number of plastic bottles saved this month.
Moreover, students can reduce their reliance on plastic by using their own cutlery and containers at dining halls, use their own shopping bags in stores, and support zero-waste plans at work and at home.
— Rachel Lea
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