For the past two and half years, biology professor Kathy Anzelmo has been petitioning for Loyola to be a plastic-free campus. This means no plastic water bottles or soda bottles, anywhere. Not in the bookstore, not in the Market and not in vending machines

“Having a plastic-free campus is ideal,” Anzelmo said. “What’s ideal would be to go back to aluminum because that’s much more recyclable than plastic.” Though she believes that the best thing would really be for students to just stop drinking sugary drinks altogether, but she’s not trying to be mom to the world.

“The first petition I did was on April 1, 2008,” Anzelmo said.

“I got 248 signatures.” Since then, she’s gotten about 450 more supporters and has tries to raise awareness by hosting tables in the Dana Center and on Earth Day to educate students about the consequences of making the choice to buy plastic products.

But that was back when she had energy.

Now, Anzelmo says she’s running out of steam because getting signatures was one thing, but taking the proposal to the University Administration proved to be more difficult.

“At this point, the students are keeping me going,” Anzelmo said in reference to the roadblocks she’s met on the administrative level. “If it weren’t for them I would have run out of steam a long time ago.”

Despite her and many others’ passion for the issue, Robert Reed, assistant vice-president for Student Affairs, says there are many factors involved in implementing such a plan.

“It’s a lot more complicated than it seems,” Reed said. “There isn’t just one entity that can say we’re going to switch.”

In fact, for a proposal like Anzelmo’s to be implemented, it would have to be discussed and passed by the University Senate, the Students Government Association, individuals who are part of the administration and eventually the Rev. Kevin Wildes, S.J. would make the final decision.

And those are just the on-campus factors. There are also several contractors involved when it comes to this particular proposal.

According to Reed, Loyola has several contracts with companies like Sodexo, Kentwood Springs Water and Coca-Cola, all of which pertain to vending or other food and drink related products.

Loyola gets a commission from the sale of Coca-Cola’s products in vending machines.

That money goes into a general university revenue account, and because plastic is cheaper to produce than aluminum, these could be reasons why both University Administrators and Coca-Cola might be hesitant to switch from plastic bottles to aluminum cans in their vending machines.

Loyola’s contract with Coca-Cola runs through April 20, 2016, which would make switching to a plastic-free campus quickly more difficult.

But there are other, unforeseeable factors that could also make the University hesitant about making the leap.

“Completely getting rid of plastic is difficult,” Reed said. “An example of this is when the water pressure dropped in the city a few weeks ago and on short notice Sodexo ordered 15,000 bottles of water for students.”

Incidents like this could make living without plastic bottles a sensitive issue.

But, Reed believes it is not impossible.

“It just needs to be well thought out. Having a plastic-free campus is something we need to have a conversation about, and everyone needs to be part of the process because it would effect everybody.”

Alex White, co-captain planet of Loyola’s Association of Students for Sustainability agrees.

“A campus-wide discussion needs to be an on-going process,” he said. “Basically Loyola needs to become a place of innovative thinking on the matter.” White said they could get some ideas from places where they are already implemented, such as other universities.

In fact, going plastic-free is a trend that many universities world-wide have opted into.

Seattle University, the University of Wisconsin, Washington University in St. Louis and Leeds University in the United Kingdom as well as many others have all made the change.

And White said L.A.S.S. is willing to help Loyola do so as well.

“Getting students to think about these opportunities is definitely something that L.A.S.S. would be willing to help with and is already planning to do so,” White said.

Anzelmo believes that no matter which way Loyola decides to go, everyone will be affected.

But when it comes down to it, “you can’t think about the money,” Anzelmo said. “You have to think about doing the right thing.”

Erin Clements can be reached at [email protected]