Students in the GW Environmental Justice Action Network are calling on GW to reform the University’s waste management system after students in the group observed the improper rollout of sustainability initiatives by officials and mixing of waste by custodial staff.
Seven EJAN members drafted a petition this semester urging officials to phase out the new reusable takeout containers in the University Student Center in favor of composting, suspend mixing of waste and recyclables, bolster custodian training surrounding waste management and enforce GW’s single-use plastic policy. EJAN members said the demands stem from student accounts of finding reusable containers in waste bins, video evidence of custodians mixing waste with recyclables and compost in District House and photos of single-use plastic littered around campus.
EJAN members said they circulated the petition via posters around campus starting Sunday night and are posting it on Instagram Monday for students to sign to show officials student support for their proposals.
The petition proposes a number of changes to the University’s waste management system and dining facilities, including creating clearer signage to help students properly sort their waste, making containers compostable across all on-campus dining facilities and increasing waste collection training for custodial staff. The petition also calls on officials to better communicate with the Office of Sustainability, which GW created to coordinate “sustainability performance improvement” on campus, according to the office’s website.
First-year EJAN member Juliette Travassos, who helped draft the petition, said the organization began working on its petition this semester after EJAN members noticed how much the campus eateries violate the University’s single-use plastics policy and how often custodial staff mix waste. She said the petition then expanded to include issues the writers observed with Dispatch Goods, a reusable container program that officials rolled out at the USC in January, like students improperly disposing of them.
Travassos said officials need to boost training for custodians who may be mixing waste with recyclables because sorting lapses mean individual student actions to increase sustainability, like sorting their waste into the right bins, have no impact when staff are combining the waste and taking it all to the landfill.
“We’re all very dedicated to the environment, sustainability, and that’s horrible to realize that even the small-scale action that you’re taking as an individual is not going anywhere at the end of the day because an institution doesn’t have the infrastructure to properly sort waste,” Travassos said.
EJAN Co-President Elias Theofilopoulos said he and the other petition writers documented through photos in the petition multiple instances of Dispatch Goods plastic containers littered around campus or thrown away in garbage bins. Theofilopoulos said GW Dining officials should have added return bins in every residence hall to make it easier for students to return containers.
Students can use and then return Dispatch Goods containers to the USC, where employees collect the containers to be washed at an off-campus wash facility and reused. Unlike OZZI takeout containers, which GW Dining introduced to dining halls in September 2024, Dispatch Goods containers do not require a deposit or token to opt in and there are no repercussions if a student does not return their Dispatch Goods container, so they can pick up an indefinite number with no incentive to return them.
Officials touted the Dispatch Goods program as a sustainability initiative on the GW Dining website, which states the containers will help reduce the environmental impact of the USC’s dining operations by using five times less water and avoiding thousands of pounds of waste.
Theofilopoulos said petitioners were also struck by the fact that Panda Express, Sushi Do, Chaat House and District House serve students with single-use plastics, which he said violates GW’s single-use plastics policy.
The policy states the University is committed to eliminating single-use plastics on campus, specifying people should not procure single-use plastics using University funds for use in operations and activities on GW property, if alternatives are available.
University spokesperson Claire Sabin said the University has received EJAN’s proposal and is evaluating the recommendations with the relevant teams across campus, like the Office of Sustainability.
Sabin said GW Dining incorporates student input through the GW Dining Advisory Panel, a forum for students to advocate for change within the dining halls to GW Dining leadership, which EJAN representatives typically attend. The panel holds monthly town hall meetings for all students to share concerns and opinions about GW Dining.
Sabin said GW Dining has taken a “collaborative” approach to sustainability initiatives, including the Dispatch Goods program, and worked with the Office of Sustainability. Sabin declined to comment on how officials enforce the single-use plastics policy.
The Hatchet directed a separate set of questions about GW Dining and the Dispatch Goods rollout to the Dining Student Advisory Panel executive board — a group of students selected by GW Dining leadership who work closely with senior dining officials to advocate for student needs and shape GW’s dining services. Advisory Panel Executive Board member Lilly Shaw replied with the same statement as Sabin.
Shaw declined to comment on EJAN’s request that the USC return to compostable containers and how much waste USC retail dining establishments produced before Dispatch Goods was introduced.
EJAN Co-President Sonia Lerner said EJAN has documented many instances where custodial staff mixed waste during the collection process, negating any recycling or composting environmental benefits, which they included in their petition. However, Lerner said, custodial staff are not at fault because they have not had proper training from officials.
“This is a failure of the infrastructure and a failure of implementing safeguards to prevent this from happening,” Lerner said.
The petition recommends waste management training for all custodial staff be overseen by the Office of Sustainability and that officials introduce color-coded trash bags — black for landfill, blue for recycling and green for compost — which the petition states would make waste collection easier.
Sabin said the University recognizes opportunities for it to strengthen practices within its waste management system.
Sabin also said staff is trained to move recycling and compost to the waste bin if they find it to be contaminated with items that are not compostable or recyclable.
EJAN states in the petition the University needs to implement “immediate, structural reform” of its waste management systems. It states the University publicly identifies sustainability as a core pillar of the institution, but its waste management operations across campus do not align with its stated environmental commitments.
“These failures undermine trust, contribute to environmental harm, and constitute environmental greenwashing,” the petition states.
GW has met significant sustainability goals this year, including its pledge to phase out fossil-fuel investments in GW’s endowment and reach their interim carbon-neutrality target by the end of 2025. Officials also announced last week plans to install solar panels on about 11 buildings, including the USC, in the next year.
