whole year in trying to pass these measures to keep the environment in mind," he added.

Berry said yesterday that he had the environment in mind when suggesting the switch. "You can't operate in this business nowadays without starting to be environmentally conscious," he said.

"You can't see barges floating for five months trying to find a port and not start to be aware of the need," Berry added.

In the fall, Hockenstein, attempting to raise awareness about the "worst environmental nightmare on campus," collected all the cups disposed in one day. His count of 8000 cups, or 20 large garbage bags, prompted him to further action, he said.

The change of cups, in the long run, will save the Dining Services "an incredible amount of money," Hockenstein said. Eliminating paper cups is only one part of the effort to make the Union more environmentally sound, Hockenstein added. The Union is replacing single-serve cardboard containers with new cereal dispensers and is selling mugs to help curtail paper-cup waste before year's end.

Randall T. Kempner contributed to the reporting of this article.