This semester, Emory launched a sustainability initiative involving community members from across the enterprise: Emory’s Break Free From Plastic Task Force. The team will meet throughout a 2025-26 planning period and complete recommendations for a year-by-year single-use plastic (SUP) reduction strategy in 2026.
The task force is the first step in implementing the institution’s 2021 Break Free From Plastic Pledge. Following this spring’s announcement of Emory’s new waste vendor, the Break Free From Plastic Task Force is part of Emory’s ongoing endeavor to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfills and to meet the university’s sustainability goals.
The Break Free From Plastic Pledge, signed by then-President Gregory L. Fenves in 2021, commits Emory to reducing its use of certain SUPs, such as plastic bags, straws and Styrofoam.
The task force is chaired by Vice President of Campus Services Robin Morey and incoming President of Plastic Free Emory, third-year student Madelyn Hill. It is also comprised of faculty, staff, students, and business and community partners with experience and expertise in single-use plastic reduction and Emory’s supply chains.
The task force co-chairs also intentionally included representatives from the Emory Climate Coalition, Emory Procurement, the Environmental Sciences Department, Emory Healthcare, Emory Recycles and beyond.
“It is always exciting to be working with our students to make Emory a more sustainable campus,” Morey says. “I’m looking forward to working with Plastic Free Emory and the many other stakeholders who will make up the Break Free From Plastic Task Force.”
Hill adds, “Plastic Free Emory has worked diligently in the past few years to decrease the prevalence of harmful single-use plastics across campus, and we are very excited to see the Break Free From Plastic Pledge go into effect this year. As a part of the task force, I look forward to collaborating with passionate members of the Emory community to push for positive changes towards sustainability.”
While the Break Free From Plastic Pledge emphasizes the need to reduce Emory’s reliance on all sources of single-use plastic, it specifically prioritizes those single-use plastics already named in the City of Atlanta Ordinance 19-O-1418, which prohibits the purchase of non-compostable single-use plastic cutlery, bags, straws and Styrofoam for use in city-operated buildings.
By aligning with the ordinance, Emory strengthens its relationship with the city as a collaborator in sustainability initiatives. In an effort to strengthen partnership on plastic reduction initiatives, a representative from the City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Sustainability and Resilience was invited to sit on Emory’s Break Free From Plastic Task Force. Chandra Farley, the City of Atlanta Chief Sustainability Officer, attended the first meeting.
An overall reduction in emissions
The reduction of single-use plastics at Emory impacts the well-being of people and ecosystems far beyond campus. Plastics take hundreds of years to decompose in nature, degrading into smaller and smaller microplastics. In the past half-century, as plastic waste has proliferated in the global environment, the list of known adverse impacts of plastic on ecosystems, human health and the climate has grown.
Plastics have also been shown to have more insidious health impacts, including links with cancers, endocrine system disruption, and developmental and reproductive impacts. The production and disposal of plastic impact the global climate, with some experts estimating that more than 3% of the globe’s greenhouse gas emissions come from the life cycle of plastics.
Because Emory tracks its annual emissions from the disposal of landfilled waste, the reduction of SUPs could reduce Emory’s annual greenhouse gas emissions, making progress toward Emory’s goal of achieving 50% greenhouse gas emissions reductions by 2030 from a 2010 baseline and reaching net-zero emissions by 2050.
While implementation of the Break Free From Plastic Pledge will reduce the use of SUPs on campus, not all SUPs will necessarily be eliminated through the initiative. Following best-practice guidance, Emory’s pledge makes certain exceptions for SUPs that are essential to Emory’s mission and community well-being. The pledge identifies a goal to “make progress to reduce the consumption of unnecessary SUPs that does not compromise the use of plastic” for certain needs, including the use of SUPs for the prevention of the spread of bacteria and disease; the use of SUPs by community members with physical disabilities, medical conditions, or financial limitations that make single-use-plastic use necessary; and the use of SUPs for teaching and conducting research that is reliant on single-use-plastic.
Through the 2025 publication of Emory’s most recent Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory and this year’s implementation of the Break Free From Plastic Pledge, Emory is well on its way to fulfilling the commitments made by Fenves. The entire Emory community can get on board to reduce Emory’s landfilled waste and cut carbon emissions — learn more at the OSI website.
Easy ways to reduce your use of plastic
- Complete the Break Free From Plastic pledge survey to help OSI understand our campus community’s use of and attitudes towards single-use plastics.
- Carry reusable water bottles and hot beverage containers. Bottle fillers are available in most buildings, and coffee shops on campus offer a discount if you bring your own mug.
- In Emory Dining locations, take advantage of the USEFULL reusable to-go containers.
- Bring reusable utensils and bags to the Farmers Market when dining or shopping.
- When planning events, encourage your guests to bring reusable food and beverage containers — save money while reducing plastic!