A student-led effort to remove plastic bags from the Danforth campus has expanded to involve multiple Washington University offices and an online petition circulating among students.

Student Union and the Office of Sustainability have collaborated to create a Bag Use Reduction Committee (BURC) to encourage further research and consideration of a possible plastic bag ban on campus.

According to a student report assembled over the summer, Washington University consumes approximately 271,000 plastic bags every year.

The committee is made up of 10 members, including Student Union executive advisor of sustainability, junior Jake Lyonfields, members of the Office of Sustainability, and employees from numerous campus businesses.

The 24-page report filed by LyonfIelds and two other students detailed the environmental impact of the University’s paper and plastic bag usage, and also looked at which campus groups would be affected if a policy were implemented.

The report titled “Another Step toward Sustainability” included case studies of disposable bag use reduction at local levels, and recommendations for the Washington University community.

The team reached out to the heads of Bon Appétit, the campus bookstore and Bear Necessities to learn more about disposable bag usage at Washington University to create BURC, a committee that would in turn look at longer-term changes to the University’s bag policies.

“BURC will be considering a ban because it’s something we recommend based on our research,” Lyonfields said. “We also suggest a number of other things that we think they should look into, such as developing the evaluation process for gauging how many bags we are using per year and looking at incentives.”

According to Lyonfields, Washington University cannot implement a plastic bag ban without an agreement from Bon Appétit, the Follett Corporation and Bear Necessities, the three major disposable bag distributors on Danforth campus, because they are third parties.

“This committee is made up of stakeholder groups,” he said. “If the plastic bag ban is going to be placed, it is only because all of the stakeholders agree…[and] voluntarily move past plastic bag usage.”

Lyonfields related the disposable bag initiative to the University’s water bottle initiative, which banned the sale of bottled water on campus, without the mandate of a city ban.

“With respect to the potential plastic bag ban, Wash. U. would again be the first in the nation to do that,” he said. “There are some universities who have done it because ordinances have been put in place to ban bags where the university has been located, but we would be the first university to ban it without those laws.”

To further advocate the importance of reducing plastic bag usage, students also created an online petition for their peers to show support of a plastic bag ban.

“The more student support we show, the more likely the committee is to take action,” Ravindranath said.

Both the online petition and the initiative’s Facebook page will focus on educating students about the environmental impact of disposable bag usage.

Student Union president and senior Julian Nicks said that the petition was a means of gauging student interest in the possible implementation of a plastic bag ban.

“It is a question of how we can make sustainability not a hindrance or something students are particularly annoyed by, but more so something that they can incorporate into their everyday lives that is very natural and seamless,” he said.