Chemistry and consumption: Introducing green chemistry to the general college community through greened consumer products

CHED 118

Richard W. Gurney, richard.gurney@simmons.edu, Department of Chemistry, Simmons College, 300 The Fenway, Boston, MA 02115
In the hopes of educating the community about the benefits and necessity of considering greener alternatives to current technologies, students in green chemistry courses organized a Green Chemistry Symposium, a Green Chemistry Exhibition, published numerous articles in the student newspaper and successfully lobbied college officials to adopt greened consumer products. Student presentations included green textiles for public buildings, such as EcoWorx™ Carpet Tile, Climatex lifecycle textiles (Rohner Textil AG); green paper-making processes such as the use of chlorine free TAML oxidant activators; and green inks and toners, such as soy-based materials to eliminate toxic and carcinogenic inks. Students recently established a “Switch Your Bulb” program to replace incandescent bulbs with high efficiency compact fluorescents, leading to the replacement of over 1600 bulbs. In addition, they enlisted the College's food service provider to proudly convert all plates, containers, and beverage cups to fully biodegradable Natureworks LLC polylactic acid.