Meet Matt Miller, the PhD candidate behind this eco-focused campus project
Photo courtesy of Greg Miller.
After a push from UVic’s student Surfrider club, the university has implemented a reusable drink container pilot program that aims to cut down on campus waste.
Matt Miller, the student behind the project, is a PhD candidate in the department of Earth and Ocean Sciences and executive member of the Surfrider UVic Club.
Miller worked in a microplastics research lab during his undergraduate studies at Vancouver Island University (VIU), and joined Surfrider at UVic after meeting a student who had just started the club. The club is a member of the international Surfrider Foundation, which advocates for ocean health and climate action.
Miller says he’s been in an advisory role with the club since stepping down from his chair position to focus on PhD work. His idea for a reusables program started when he observed students at waste management stations on campus struggling to sort the many components of disposable coffee cups.
Surfrider encouraged UVic to perform a waste audit, because they had fallen behind on this during COVID-19. The third-party company responsible for the audit identified coffee cups as one of the largest sources of poorly-sorted waste on campus, said Miller.
After the audit, Miller had the chance to meet with UVic President Kevin Hall to discuss its results, and he advocated for a reusables program that would target waste reduction.
Miller says that his team was originally focused on to-go boxes, but after having met with UVic Food Services, they decided that Surfrider would focus efforts on drink containers while the university implemented Eco Boxes for campus meals. The Eco Box program came into effect in the fall of 2022, with the opening of the Cove dining facility.
“We considered [Eco Boxes] our first victory,” Miller said. “We had pushed for it, and it was a cool program that they had launched.”
Miller came across Vancouver-based company Reusables in his search for a washable drink container, and he connected the company with UVic Food Services to begin planning the project.
Miller applied for the Campus Sustainability fund, and received $25 000 for the project. The Reusables company also received a grant through the Clean B.C. Plastics Action Fund.
“It’s a pilot project,” Miller said. “The goal is to prove that it’s successful,” he added, explaining that the cups are only available at the Port Cafe in the Cove, and Boardwalk Cafe in Mystic Market — for now.
“My dream goal is to get [the program] campus-wide and by default, so that there [are] no single-use cups even offered,” Miller said.
One way for UVic to track the success of the project is through online metrics offered by the company, explained Miller. A goal isn’t set in stone, but Miller would like to see around ten per cent of campus coffee sales drunk from Reusable cups to prove that the pilot is successful.
Miller says that 4 000 drinks in disposable cups are sold each day on campus, so he hopes that the program will make a dent in UVic’s waste production.
The project will be reevaluated in a year to see if it was successful, says Miller. Until then, he encourages students and members of the UVic community to buy their drinks in Reusables.
The program is free, and Miller pointed out that it can actually save students money by avoiding the $0.25 eco fee applied to all disposable cups on campus.
Students can download the Reusables app to create a free account and get started.
