As Lawrenceville’s first sus person of the month, there is no doubt that Deb has done great things for sustainability in the Bath House on campus. We took a deeper look into her motivations for being sustainable, what actions she has taken, and her hopes for the future of a greener Bath House.
Deb explained that it all started out with curiosity. She consistently wonders about where garbage goes, asking questions such as, “how much of trash is actually recycled,” and “how much water is used to make [her] phone case.” Her curiosity leads her to educate herself about environmental issues. One astonishing fact she has learnt is that humans ingest a credit card’s worth of plastic from water and food every week. The problem makes her question whether the convenience of plastic is really worth more than health.
All of these questions and facts have motivated Deb to take action in the Bath House on campus. The Bath House’s famous Sushi Thursdays, for instance, now have takeout sushi served on paper plates instead of plastic boxes. Takeouts for other food are no longer served with the foil it used to have. As for takeout drinks, Deb tries not to give students plastic lids, since they are the only part of the drink that are not paper. Above all, Deb takes the time to sort through the normal trash cans and take out recyclable trash to put in the right bin.
Deb’s vision for the Bath House’s future is to have biodegradable trash bags one day, as we can’t completely avoid using them. She also calls for students to eat at the Bath House more instead of taking out, as well as to use their own reusable water bottles or “pretty Stanley cups” rather than wasting a plastic cup on starbucks water. In the future, she also hopes to tackle the problem of recycling glass Joe Tea bottles which are currently non-recyclable on campus.
We cannot solely rely on Deb and her staff to keep the Bath House and campus sustainable; it is a group effort. Deb hopes that her passion for sustainability will inspire students at Lawrenceville to make a change in their lifestyles.
