Ceramics with a “BAM!”
Over 100 billion cups of coffee are consumed by Americans every year, and over 16 billion of those are bought in disposable paper cups. With 6.5 million trees killed yearly to produce these cups, along with the release of deadly chemicals in the air, ceramics instructor Carla Collins’ Ceramics II class recognized the threat plastic and paper cups pose on the environment and decided to take action in a fun but effective way. Students in the class crafted mugs and donated them to Grill to support the “Bring a Mug!” program.
The “BAM!” program encourages the use of reusable mugs by offering a free hot drink of a customer's choice every tenth time they use a mug for their hot beverage purchases at Grill. The program started two years ago, and was an idea that culminated from Principal Tom Hassan’s sustainability initiative of eliminating plastic water bottles. Grill Manager Bob Brown explained the reasoning behind the program.
“Ward Ganger, director of Dining Services, and Melinda Leonard, associate director Dining Services, along with Grill Manager Bob Brown, realized that we were using a lot of paper coffee cups at Grill and thought it would be great to cut down on this usage of paper products,” Brown said.
Collins decided to support the program by making the first of her Ceramic II classes’ three main projects an assignment to create reusable ceramic mugs that Grill can offer to Exonians. Collins explained the inspiration behind her decision to actively support “BAM!”
“I was inspired by the artist, Michael Strand’s, speech at the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts, NCECA, last year,” she said. “His project was called the Miss Fit Cup Liberation Project. This artist created an interchangeable installation of mugs where the audience was invited to swap one or their own commercial mugs with a story for one of his hand made mugs.”
Collins’ ceramics students are proud of their contributions to the school and to the environment. The students worked hard to each create and donate two to five mugs to Grill. One of Collins’ Ceramics II students, senior Tyler Chapman, expressed his satisfaction.
“This project is nice because our work is not only displayed, [but] it is also functional and will have an impact on the community,” Chapman said. “I don’t think for very many things that we do here we can say it is going to directly impact the campus, and I appreciate that, for this project, that is the case.”
Another student in Collin’s Ceramics II class, prep Ivy Hong, was also glad to participate in the project. Not only was she happy to help the environment, but she was also glad to have the opportunity to share her art with other Exonians.
“I was pretty excited about it because my friends and teachers would be using the cups that my class and I made,” she said.
After creating the mugs, the next step in the project was to advertise them so students on campus would be aware of the new option to temporarily borrow a mug from Grill. The class took photos of their mugs and received help from custodian Steven Rider in organizing these photos into posters that were hung around campus.
In addition, the class used the help of social media to further publicize their mugs on campus. The ceramics students created an Instagram page, peaceramics2, and posted photos of their handcrafted Grill mugs to promote “BAM!”’s cause. Customers at Grill are encouraged to take a “selfie” with their Grill mugs and post it to their page.
With the help of advertising and Collin’s Ceramics II class, “BAM!’ has proven successful in its goal to protect the environment. Grill has managed to cut down on using over 1000 paper cups a month, and now even the few cups that they still utilize are biodegradable.
“We have been watching carefully the mug usage, and it seems to be an overwhelming success! We have also noticed another significant drop in paper cup usage and more students, faculty and staff bringing in their own re-usable mugs,” Brown said.
Although it has proven successful, the program could still use some more support from Grill customers. Brown hopes to see even more support of the event by students and faculty on campus.
“Participation has been great, but we would still like all those still buying coffee and other hot drinks to please BAM (bring a mug) or just grab one of Grill’s,” he said. “After all, that’s what this program is all about.”