Devin Brown (Photo credit: Bonner program/UH Hilo)
For his capstone project connected to a national leadership program, a geography student at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo is developing a plan to create a sustainable “dish library” on campus for event planners to utilize instead of purchasing disposable paper and plastic tableware that end up in the landfill.
“We have a lot of events on campus that happen every day and the majority of them involve food,” says Devin Brown. “The majority of people will go and buy paper plates or disposable forks for their events, just because it’s more convenient that way.” But that just adds more waste to the island’s landfill.
Expecting to graduate next spring, Brown, who hails from Seattle, Washington, is majoring in geography and environmental science with a minor in geology, along with earning certificates in environmental studies and planning. He says his main focus in his studies is learning about Earth and its ecosystems, “how they function and more specifically how humans interact with those systems, and how humans can then build resilience into the systems to better our lives. These are systems which our lives depend on in the first place.”
Watch this video about Devin’s internship experience with Zero Waste Hawai’i
It takes a community
Brown’s internship project on sustainable tableware is made possible through several community-based and national nonprofit and government groups.
Devin Brown (center) with the UH Hilo 2021 Bonner Program cohort, from left, Lavinia Manufekai, Amena Tep, Brown, Bella Chapman, and Evonne Fronda. The photo was taken in March 2022 during Spring Break on their three-day service trip to Hakalau Forest, where they learned about climate change in Hawaiʻi and its impact on birds. They also planted 300 trees. Read full story. (Courtesy photo from the UH Hilo Center for Community Engagement)
It starts with Brown being a Bonner Leader, a title for students participating in the Bonner Program, a four-year nationwide program that gives college students a paid opportunity to gain leadership and networking skills through engaging with the local community. Bonner Leaders are students enrolled at the university who commit to paid positions of 8 to 10 hours per week, which includes leadership training and on-site work with community organizations. Bonner Leaders are committed to the program for their four years of study at the university. Brown’s sustainable tableware plan is his capstone project for the Bonner Program.
The Bonner Program, along with some state funding, is supporting Brown’s paid internship at Zero Waste Hawaiʻi, a local nonprofit with a mission to help Hawaiʻi Island communities achieve zero waste. ZWHI is collaborating with the county’s Department of Environmental Management on an islandwide project called the Hilo Reusable Foodware System. Brown’s project is part of this islandwide foodware project.
Brown explains the urgency of starting zero waste programs on Hawaiʻi Island.
“There’s a lot of waste that’s generated at the university and in Hilo,” Brown explains. “Our landfills are full. So we truck all of our garbage over to the Kona side. It’s about 160 tons of trash gets trucked from Hilo to Kona almost every day.”
Implementing his dish library would decrease the amount of waste produced by UH Hilo, and in turn, lower the waste stream going over to the Kona landfill.
“In Hawaiʻi, we don’t have the same privileges as on the mainland where we get to just send our trash super far away where no one’s living,” says Brown. “Everywhere on our island there’s communities and people thriving. We have limited space.”