After 73 percent of CSU students polled in the spring of 2014 supported a single-use plastic bag phase-out plan for campus, several campus organizations including the Graduate Student Council (GSC), the Student Sustainability Committee (SSC), and the CSU Bookstore began to make this proposed plan a reality, culminating in the Leave the Plastic Plant a Tree campaign.

With a start date of August 2014, the CSU Bookstore agreed to donate five cents for every plastic bag that a student declines, up to a total of $1,500 per semester. With each declined plastic bag, a student may take a wooden nickel and add it to the Plant a Tree fund to track the progress of the campaign. To date, students have foregone nearly 30,000 plastic bags while shopping at the Bookstore, raising more than $1,500 to be used to plant native Colorado trees on campus.

“Part of our mission at the Bookstore is to support CSU and the CSU community through our operations, said CSU Bookstore Director John Parry. “Through this campaign, we are reducing our footprint and being the best stewards that we can be, all while serving our community through initiatives it feels are important.”

The first set of trees will be planted at Danforth Chapel as part of Tree Campus USA’s earth day festival. The tree planting will take place at 2 p.m. April 22.