The University of Virginia (UVA) has announced that it will soon stop buying single-use plastics. It’s part of a broader sustainability trend across institutions of higher learning, and it could pose a sales opportunity for promotional products companies.

Beginning on July 21, the school in Charlottesville, VA, will no longer purchase single-use plastic bags, cutlery, food containers, straws, water bottles and liners, and will work on using up existing inventory. The move is in line with one of UVA’s objectives in its 2030 Sustainability Plan: to reduce the school’s waste output by 70% over the next nine years.

The announcement also follows Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s March executive order, which mandated that all state agencies and colleges/universities stop purchasing single-use plastics over the following four months. By the fall, they’ll be required to develop plastic pollution reduction plans to eliminate all use of single-use plastics by 2025 and determine alternatives.

“This [executive] order is a positive step toward making our whole Commonwealth cleaner and our economy more sustainable,” said Jennifer Davis, UVA’s executive vice president and chief operating officer, and Colette Sheehy, senior vice president for operations and state government relations, in a joint statement. “It also aligns closely with the university’s own sustainability goals and work that has already been underway to reduce single-use plastics.”

After a slow-down during the pandemic, plastic bans are beginning again in earnest. Lawmakers in Colorado have officially outlawed single-use plastic bags and polystyrene products, and the city of Philadelphia now prohibits single-use plastic bags at retail stores along with paper bags that don’t contain at least 40% recycled content.

More universities are now banning them, too: George Washington University, Georgetown University and the University of Montana have all announced plans to rid their campuses of single-use plastics. Promo companies that serve institutions of higher education should be thinking about reusable alternatives that schools will need in the months and years ahead, such as tote bags, drinkware, compostable takeout containers and reusable straws.