Dozens of clear plastic cups reflecting the afternoon sun captured the attention of students passing by between the Student Services Center and Bell Memorial Union Monday.

Approximately 365 plastic cups were laid out by Associated Students Sustainability to visually represent the waste of using a single cup every day for an entire year.

The group has been involved on campus since 2006, and recently led the campaign to ban plastic straws at Chico State.

The cups were gathered from trash bins around campus last Saturday morning.

Education and Outreach Coordinator of AS Sustainability, Maggie Scarpa, hopes the display raises awareness.

“We’re doing this to bring momentum about the problem of waste on our campus and our cities,” Scarpa said.

Although recycling is a priority for the campus, Executive Vice President of AS, Jared Geiser, explained one of the difficulties they face.

“Paper cups are compostable, but most cups come from bioplastics so they are destined for the landfill,” Geiser said.

Geiser and Scarpa stood outside from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. with other AS interns answering questions and providing information about environmentally smart practices.

One suggestion for eliminating more waste was to remove the ice coffee cups from the dining halls and replace them with paper cups, which are more degradable.

Scarpa maintained there’s always room for improvement especially at a campus with such a long history of sustainability.

“There’s no perfect solution, but I bet there’s something that can be implemented decently at Chico State,” Scrapa said. “We really need to start refusing things that we don’t need, and reducing things that we do need and reusing.”

One opportunity students have to develop more sustainable practices and help increase awareness on campus would be participating in the zero waste challenge presented by AS Sustainability.

Students will carry around all the trash they individually produce in bags or mason jars for the length of a day, week or month anytime between October 1 and October 31. Prizes will be given out weekly and students interested in getting involved can sign-up in BMU 005.

Olyvia Simpson can be reached at [email protected] or @OSimpson15 on Twitter