Graduation season at the University of Tennessee, or any SEC school, usually means finding confetti everywhere you go on campus from the aftermath of senior photos. At the end of it all, the confetti does not get cleaned up on its own.
UT employees are left cleaning it up, or worse, it ends up in our rivers, ultimately creating pollution and harm to our wildlife here in East Tennessee. The Student Government Association at UT brought the idea of bringing sustainable confetti to campus to the Division of Student Life as a replacement for store-bought, non-biodegradable confetti.
Hope Adkins, the special projects coordinator at the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Life, explained that their department was more than excited to see students involved in campus sustainability practices.
“The Division of Student Life was eager to support a student-driven effort that combined school spirit with environmental responsibility,” Adkins said. “We saw it as a fantastic opportunity to make campus celebrations more eco-friendly while highlighting student creativity and leadership.”
Dante Grayson, SGA student body president, explained that he and the University of Alabama SGA president discussed bringing this new, sustainable form of celebration to campus.
“They actually have the same initiative provided by their Student Government Association,” Grayson said.
Grayson explained that he meets with SGA presidents at SEC colleges monthly, allowing him to bring new ideas to UT while putting his creative spin on them.
Store-bought confetti contains polyvinyl chloride, one of the most toxic synthetic plastics, taking over 1,000 years to decompose. This harms not only our environment but also wildlife. The microplastics within confetti can be seen as food to marine life and birds ultimately spreading to predators higher in the food chain. With those statistics, that means that every UT graduate who has celebrated with confetti has contributed to long-lasting damage to our environment.
Grayson explained that the sustainable confetti is made from wood pulp and contains zero metal, unlike store-bought confetti. With wood pulp being made up of natural components, the wood-based cellulosic fibers biodegrade within only a few weeks with the help of soil and water.
“The Division of Student Life helped us connect to a specific distributor of biodegradable confetti,” Grayson said. “We wanted to be specific about the way in which this was biodegradable.”
Adkins explained that through the distributor, they were able to find a supplier for biodegradable confetti that aligned with UT’s sustainability goals. Since this project was new to UT, only a limited quantity of confetti was purchased to gauge student interest.
At UT’s grad fair that occurred from March 25 to March 27, SGA distributed an entire box of sustainable confetti poppers to seniors getting ready for graduation photos. Seniors at UT can obtain confetti poppers at no cost from the Center for Student Engagement located in the Student Union or at upcoming events.
Grayson acknowledged that while senior photos have already begun at UT, SGA believes that bringing sustainable confetti to campus is a step toward becoming a more sustainable campus.
“When you promote awareness of sustainable efforts such as this amongst students and the broader campus community, I think they are more willing to be educated,” Grayson said.
Grayson hopes that other student organizations will want to become more involved with sustainability efforts by taking this initiative.
“When we think about the campus itself and the sustainability of it, we need to make sure that we are continuing these efforts to not only beautify our campus but to educate our campus,” Grayson said. “For any student leadership, make your mark here so you can help educate others in the future, especially when it involves sustainable efforts as well as environmental efforts to show that impact.”
Adkins explained that the Division of Student Life sees this project as a stepping stone for larger sustainability initiatives on campus.
“As a pilot program, the biodegradable confetti project is testing out a new, eco-friendly idea with the potential for broader impact,” Adkins said. “If successful, it could inspire more sustainable practices in campus events. It’s a small but meaningful step that could lead to a bigger campus transformation that will help keep Rocky Top beautiful.”
