Overall Rating Platinum
Overall Score 88.80
Liaison Aarushi Gupta
Submission Date Aug. 11, 2021

STARS v2.2

University of California, Irvine
IN-32: Single-Use Plastic Ban

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 0.50 / 0.50 Carrie Metzgar
Sustainability and Planning Analyst
Campus Physical and Environmental Planning
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Has the institution banned or eliminated the on-site sales and distribution of at least one type of single-use disposable plastic?:
Yes

A brief description of the single-use disposable plastics that have been banned or eliminated:
UC Irvine, along with all other UC Campuses have passed a ban on select single-use plastics. The policy is as follows:

1) Plastic bags in retail and food service establishments were eliminated as of Jan. 1, 2021.

-- UCI banned all plastic bags in retail and food service prior to 2021

2) Single-use plastic dining accessories (e.g., straws, utensils, stirrers) will be eliminated and replaced with local compostable or reusable alternatives by July 1, 2021, with exceptions for accessibility needs.

-- UCI is already in compliance. UCI Dining has only been using reusables and compostables, straws were eliminated in 2019, reusable utensils are provided for in-person dining, compostable utensils provided for to-go dining.

3) Dine-in facilities will provide reusable food service items (e.g., plates, cups, clamshell containers) for food consumed on site by July 1, 2022, and to-go facilities will provide reusable or locally compostable alternatives.

-- UCI is in compliance already for dine-in facilities.

4) Campus food service operations will phase out the purchase, sale and distribution of single-use plastic beverage bottles by Jan. 1, 2023. To support this change, UC locations are encouraged to install water refill stations.

-- UCI is already making great progress towards eliminating single-use plastic beverage bottles. UCI Facilities Management has installed over 90 hydration stations throughout campus. Click here to view a map of locations: https://map.uci.edu/?id=463#!ce/36404?ct/36407.



The single-use plastic ban begins on page 13 of the UC Sustainable Practices Policy: https://policy.ucop.edu/doc/3100155/SustainablePractices

Optional Fields

Website URL where information about the single-use disposable plastic ban(s) is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
The UCI Procurement webpage about Sustainable Purchasing provides single-use plastics policy resources. These resources contain the Single-Use Plastics Policy Implementation Guide, a list of UCIBuy suggested items, and a Green Events Guide. View webpage here: https://procurement.uci.edu/strategic-initiatives/sustainable-purchasing.php

The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.