ORGANIC ALTERNATIVE TO PLASTIC BAGS
Thursday, March 6
In an effort to reduce the number of plastic bags used at Syracuse University, the Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) organization will sell organic bags in the SU bookstore starting the Monday after Spring Break.Each year, the bookstore purchases more than 100,000 plastic bags, said Carolyn Kissane, vice president of communications for SIFE.

To start out, 200 organic bags will be available for purchase, said Krista Carbonetto, project leader and a senior retail and marketing major. The bags will be sold for $15 each. Depending on how the bags sell, SIFE may make another installment with a different design, she said.Students who purchase the bags will receive 5 percent off purchases more than $20 every time they return to the bookstore with the bag, Carbonetto said.

This excludes non-discountable items such as computers and textbooks.SIFE is working to contribute to the overall effort by SU to be environmentally friendly, Carbonetto said."We realized that though there is a green movement, not a lot is going on with the bookstore, which is where a lot of students spend their time," she said.The idea for designing a bag came from a brainstorming session at the beginning of the year, she said. SIFE designed its environmentally friendly bag to be trendy so students will want to carry it around.Amanda Nicholson, assistant director of retail management and SIFE's advisor, said she hopes the organic bags will make a difference, citing the need for an alternative to the plastic bag.

"It's time to move away from constantly throwing away plastic bags," she said. "It's kind of a win-win situation."Everyone benefits - students, the bookstore and the environment, said April Hace, president of SIFE and a senior retail marketing and finance major. "A lot of people have said that the bags used in the bookstores need to be changed," she said. "We're really the first group to really take action on it.

"There are a lot of initiatives taken by the university in order to be environmentally friendly, and the bags will contribute to energy conservation, said Steve Lloyd, SU's chief sustainability officer."The awareness campaign for green issues has picked up speed," Lloyd said.

By unnguyen@syr.edu

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