(Cover Photo Source: Sproutworks)

Over the years, the plentiful metal cup supply at the Sproutworks Cafe has been steadily declining. According to this OCA article, in the course of seven weeks, “1182 metal cups out of 3000 [went] missing,” approximately 24 cups per day.

As the years have passed, most of the cups have yet to be recovered, and still more have vanished in their stead. The school’s response was an Earth Day announcement issued by Dean of Students David Pe in 2021. Attached was the following chart:

As the inventory increased, the absences have only increased in proportion. A few have been discovered over time: strewn amidst the riot of common spaces, carried off to dorms and apartments across the Shanghai cityscape, or fished out of garbage disposals. It is not an inconsequential amount either. Pe stated that, “our custodians have had to salvage at least 355 reusable steel cups from [the] trash bins” as of 2021.

According to Mary Kate, the Sproutworks manager at NYU Shanghai, right now “there are around 1000 cups left, [where there were originally] 6000.” Others have similarly expressed their shock at how stark the decline has been. The acting director of the Student Government’s Environmental Sustainability Committee, Lina Kim ‘23, says, “There used to be six piles of cups sitting in the 2nd floor cafe, but after a year, the piles decrease to only three to four. The metal cups sometimes even ran out if I wanted to grab them later in the afternoon.”So, what is being done to prevent the rapid turnover of perfectly functional cups? The Student Government’s Environmental Sustainability Committee has already discussed this issue at length, but to little avail. Kim has raised the issue at meetings, where potential solutions nearly always come curtailed: First, they “considered establishing a new method to manage the metal cups by having students to tag their card or record their information in some way when they pick up and return a cup.” But chipping every cup was not a realistic feat. They also debated “promoting and spreading more awareness on this issue.” But this has yielded poor results in the past. However, there are those who are staying resolute. Mary Kate says that Sproutworks is currently working with the NYU Shanghai’s “Office of [Communication, which has] also helped to post some videos and information about the cups so that the community is aware.” It seems the general consensus is that despite the observed effects of previous endeavors, the most important thing to do now is raise awareness on this issue and trust our fellow community members to do the responsible thing. Given our bleak history, whether such responsibility is a challenge equal to us remains highly questionable.