Hi Dan,
Somewhat surprisingly, bans on plastic bags seem not to have gained as much success as the dozens of bottled water bans and reduction efforts that have been happening on various campuses.
New York University does have a program through the campus bookstore. With each purchase made at the bookstore, customers have the opportunity to refuse a plastic bag and in turn the Bookstore will donate the average cost of a bag (5 cents) to one of four designated non-profit environmentally friendly organizations.
More details available here: http://www.bookstores.nyu.edu/green.html

There are also efforts underway at a few campuses (lead by students) to ban plastic bags. Here is one example from the University of Oregon.

We have a student-lead proposed plastic bag ban being presented to our student government right now. The students have been working closely with our office of sustainability and auxiliary services folks to plan for a transition. It has been a very cooperative process so far and seems like it will indeed result in a drastic cut in plastic bags if not an outright elimination of them.

I'll invite the student leading the charge to contact you directly Dan.

The American Dream Is Green,
Chris O'Brien
Office of Sustainability
American University

Mr. Waxman,

At Western Michigan University, we have a plastic film recycling program that is through Maine Plastics in Schoolcraft. They take our plastic for free, and separate it for us. They accept clean: plastic bags, cellophane, bubblewrap, vinyl table cloths, and salt bags. In order to reduce the waste of plastic bags, we have made re-usable Western bags that are sold at the bookstores. Also, we have a Dining Services re-usable bag that is given to every dorm student used for take-out meals from the cafeterias rather than giving plastic bags.

Nola Wiersma
Western Michigan University
Assistant to the Manager at Solid Waste Reduction
nola.c.wiersma@wmich.edu

We provide every first year student with a reusable cloth bag. The culture has been developed on campus that these are popular and well received. We also have a new plastic bag recycling program that focuses on first reducing, then reusing, then recycling. Bags are made into benches in a partnership with a local vendor. See a recent story on our program, started by our student Eco-Reps, here:

http://www.dickinson.edu/news-and-events/news/2011-12/Plastic-Bag-Recycl...

Lindsey Lyons
Assistant Director
Center for Sustainability Education
Dickinson College
Carlisle, PA

I work for Dining at the University of Southern Maine; the University is not plastic bag free, but all of our retail locations are. If customers want a bag, they have the option to purchase a reusable Chico Bag for $3.99. I am unsure of why the University was not willing to also participate.