Students can return used tumblers in return boxes placed at Ewha Coops. Photo by Yun Sol.

Along with rising concerns on plastic use and its effects on the environment, there have been some new efforts to protect the Earth and cut unnecessary plastic use. Starting from Nov. 19 to Dec. 14, student club E-cube, Ewha Coop, and SK Telecom are co-hosting the “0 Tumbler” campaign and lending students free tumblers at Ewha’s campus Coops.

According to a survey by SK Telecom, 67 percent of university student respondents said that they were willing to buy drinks provided in reusable cups. Among the 33 percent that did not, 69 percent replied that they were concerned about hygiene. Based on these results, the “0 Tumbler” project aims to help university students to cut down on plastic use by providing free tumblers on campus and cleaning them for the users.

More than 600 tumblers have been placed at Ewha Coops in Student Union Building, Hak-gwan, and Education Building. Each place has a cup sterilizer and return box, where students can take cleaned tumblers from the sterilizer and put them in the return box after use.

The maintenance and management of tumblers are done by E-cube members and 30 “0 Tumbler crew” students recruited last month. Students distribute the tumblers to each cup sterilizer twice a day and clean the returned tumblers at the school cafeteria, which are redistributed the next day.

The project especially targets campus café users, as most customers tend to use disposable plastic cups for their drinks. Anyone who uses the provided tumblers for their drink can get a discount of 100 won at Ewha Coop café.

“Even though it was a short campaign, it reminded me of how many plastic cups we use and dispose daily,” said Lim Won-jin, a sophomore from Department of English Language & Literature. “The ‘0 tumblers’ were quite useful, too. We often forget to bring our own tumblers, and washing them is a nuisance. I saw many students using them all around campus.”

The “0 Tumbler” campaign was also held at Yonsei University and Kookmin University, each co-hosted with SK Telecom and student organization “Tenspoon” and “Jieum.”

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