\u201cwhen we were talking about this fall, my options were throwing all this money into one-use containers that were just going to fill the compost bins on campus, or trying to do this green2go rollout,\u201d mckenna said. although compostable containers were already the default, they are still produced with disposable material and take a long time to biodegrade. <\/p>\n
\u201cthe other concern was there being a shortage,\u201d farias added. \u201cwith so many other schools relying on these compostable containers, we wouldn\u2019t have been able to supply any more of them. instead, we might have to turn to something like styrofoam, which in my opinion is my worst nightmare.\u201d<\/p>\n
so farias reached out to jesse cashman, the director of auxiliary services and client manager for carleton\u2019s contract with bon app\u00e9tit. cashman had dealt with the funding for the disposable containers during spring term; with about 2,100 meals per week at $0.26 per clamshell, they had been spending $546 every week. that would have gone up to 16,000 meals and $4,160 a week come fall term. comparatively, a green2go container that can be used upwards of 300 times is only $4.10\u2014the equivalent cost of 16 disposable containers.<\/p>\n
\u201cwhen we looked at what the cost was to get the product in here, it was pretty easy to arrive at,\u201d cashman said. \u201cwe\u2019re going to return our cost here within 3-4 months of this operation, which is pretty astounding.\u201d <\/p>\n
thanks to cashman\u2019s advocacy, the college purchased 3,500 green2go containers in july, and 1,000 more in september, with money set aside for covid-19 expenses on campus. because it wasn\u2019t just about sustainability; without a pandemic, carleton would never have needed this many to-go containers. it was about safety.<\/p>\n
during new student week, all meals were packaged in disposable to-go containers. but starting on the first day of classes, with many students taking their food out in green2gos, bon app\u00e9tit has been able to set up limited and distanced seating in the dining halls and caf\u00e9s.<\/p>\n
\u201cbecause there are so few seats in the dining halls, because the occupancy limit is so low, having these green2gos really allows people to get out of the dining halls,\u201d farias said. \u201ci see them on carleton\u2019s quad, the bald spot, i see them all around campus. it allows people to eat in a socially distant manner.\u201d even as colder weather arrives and students eat outside less often, they can take their food back to their rooms rather than crowding the dining halls.<\/p>\n
and so far, it\u2019s working. mckenna was initially concerned about whether students would return the containers, given a poor track record for reusable programs in the past. \u201cwe tried it once before with the reusable cups,\u201d she said. \u201cstudents were taking soup in them and not washing them for days. they\u2019d come back full of mold. they just didn\u2019t care. we went through six thousand cups in the first three weeks of fall term, which is insane for a campus our size. they just weren\u2019t returning them. but they\u2019re returning these green2gos.\u201d<\/p>\n
hein had similar concerns at the end of spring term. she was worried that students wouldn\u2019t understand how the program worked or would just hoard the containers in their room.<\/p>\n
but being back on campus, hein has been pleasantly surprised. at the beginning of october, she conducted an inventory of the containers that showed the dining halls had the right number at meal times. sometimes, she said, she even feels like all of her friends have adjusted to the program more smoothly than she has.<\/p>\n
she has a theory as to why. \u201ci think everyone came in with an ability to adapt to all of the changes this fall,\u201d she said. \u201cif the green2go program had been the only thing that was changing, if it was a normal campus year, it might have gone worse. it\u2019s a different system, but because there are so many new systems across campus, people were just aware that they had to adapt.\u201d<\/p>\n
mckenna summed it up. \u201cin an odd way, i think covid-19 has helped this program with student awareness. i can talk about reducing waste all day long, but it really has to be something that the students buy into. they wanted to be able to eat out of the dining hall, and how could we do that successfully? the clamshells were the answer.\u201d<\/p>\n
now that bringing green2go containers back and forth from the dining halls has become the social norm, mckenna has high hopes for future sustainability projects. her ideas include reusable to-go silverware, small containers for sides at sayles, weitz, and schultze caf\u00e9s, or a revamp of the reusable cup program. the rest of the team is right behind her. \u201ci think this is a great example that with community participation, student participation, we can accomplish these sustainability efforts on campus,\u201d cashman said. \u201cso it just opens the door to make more improvements down the road in all of our other areas that we’re using disposables.\u201d<\/p>\n
there\u2019s also the possibility for the green2go program to spread beyond the carleton bubble. some institutions, such as macalester college and bemidji state university, have their own reusable programs, and others are in the process of developing them for the covid-19 crisis. carleton\u2019s unique success story can provide an example of how to do it well. farias is currently writing a case study about the project for the post landfill action network, a resource for colleges that are working to reduce their waste. chen has written about the program in the bon app\u00e9tit magazine, bravo, and the two of them are also presenting to a cross-campus sustainability group of student environmental organization leaders. <\/p>\n
\u201ci think we\u2019re an example of an institution that is doing something right and is taking advantage of the special opportunity that the covid-19 situation has presented,\u201d said chen. \u201cour model could be used as an example for other institutions to follow in step, and that would be a really awesome way to expand our impact and promote sustainability outside of just this campus.\u201d<\/p>\n
meanwhile, the green2gos are getting an evaluation back on campus. in economics professor mark kanazawa\u2019s environmental studies research methods class, one student research project is focused exclusively on the containers. karah haug \u201921 and alle brown-law \u201921 are conducting a survey of students, faculty, and staff about how the program has been going. they developed their questions, both about perceptions and usage of the green2gos, with help from miller and mckenna. in an instance of truly reciprocal research, they\u2019ll report their findings back to them to be used in adjusting the program for terms to come. <\/p>\n
\u201ci chose this project (and alle would echo this),\u201d said haug, \u201cbecause i am interested in waste habits on campus and i wanted to find out if the green2go program implementation has been successful. if it has and people have relatively positive responses to it, we will be one important step closer to reducing waste and the carbon footprint of the campus.\u201d<\/p>\n
from farias\u2019 perspective, the program has indeed been successful. he\u2019s on campus but off-board this term, so he hasn\u2019t used a single green2go container himself, he said with a laugh. but he\u2019s been asking his friends, and they\u2019ve had positive reactions. and just looking around is enough to show why. <\/p>\n
\u201caround campus during new student week, i would see trash cans piled high with all of the bon app\u00e9tit to-go containers,\u201d farias said. \u201ci can\u2019t imagine what that would look like every single day, for the rest of the term and maybe even the year. i think that was a helpful visual representation for me to think, oh, maybe i am doing some good here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
when the idea for a reusable container program was pitched last fall, no one could have guessed that a year later, the campus would be overflowing with the green containers \u2014 or that we’d be in the middle of a pandemic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9922,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4896],"tags":[4166,4482,129,1408,4453],"storyfest_categories":[],"class_list":["post-11417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food","tag-eat-local","tag-food-systems","tag-food-waste","tag-packaging","tag-wfd2020"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n