One of the thirty-one CKP hubs resides at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. Last year, CKNU decided to incorporate sustainability in its operations by replacing disposable containers with our Eco-Takeouts™. After a few weeks of logistical planning, the reusable container program has launched successfully. “We started implementing them after Thanksgiving, and they have been working great! The people we have been delivering to have done a great job of returning them, and they clean nicely,” says CKNU Coordinator Danny Burke.

The bottom line: In a 12-month period, using Eco-Takeouts™ will save CKNU an estimated $1,000, and keep 10,000 disposable containers out of landfills.

In a recent interview, Foodservice Director Tim Leary expressed sincere enthusiasm for Eco-Takeouts™ as a product. He likes their durability, stackability, — and the fact that once they do wear out, he can recycle them. Although he has tried compostables, he found that they break down quickly, sometimes before a meal is completed.

Tim provided additional details — helpful information for other B and I accounts interested in setting up a reusable to-go program:

Accountability System
Ball buys all containers, and there is no cost to employees to use them. The honor system has worked well, and 80% to 90% of the containers are returned to the cafeteria promptly. The rest are left in break rooms for pick-up by cafeteria staff. Tim also provides incentive for non- foodservice employees to return “strays.” It’s not uncommon for a custodian to return ten containers found in odd places. The effort is rewarded with a free cookie or soda.

Logistics
Ball’s 3-mile corporate campus is made up of seven buildings. So yes, it requires more work from his team to retrieve containers from each location. However, as you will see once you read on, the savings more than offset the additional labor needed to collect containers.

Keys to Success
Here’s why Tim believes the reusable container program has been successful:

• Top-down support. Ball executives eat in the same cafeteria with other employees. They use Eco-Takeouts™ and return them to the cafeteria, just like everyone else.

• Company-wide commitment to sustainability.

• A DVD produced by corporate communications to introduce the program and explain how to participate. Email reminders were also sent during the first few weeks of the program.

• Foodservice management commitment and staff buy-in.

The Bottom Line
• Before Eco-Takeouts™, Tim bought 50,000 Styrofoam™ containers a year.

• Instead, he buys 1,000 or so Eco-Takeouts™ containers every other year. (He does buy a case of disposables once or twice per year for visitors.)

• Estimated savings — $800 per month.

• Other savings: two hours per day in labor (less trash to manage) and one less Dumpster every other week.

G.E.T. applauds Tim Leary and Ball Corporation for making the commitment to maintain a reusable to-go container program. Ball employees also deserve recognition for their part in making it work. Their efforts are paying off in cost savings and environmental benefits!

Pickathon drew 5000 attendees, and about 2500 of them participated in the “Ditch Single Use Dishes” program.   Participants had their choice of Eco-Takeouts™ in various sizes, or bamboo plateware.   GO Box, a business featured in last week’s blog entry, supplied the reusable containers and managed the collection and washing process.

The accountability system should look familiar by now.   Each participant paid $10 to “buy in” and receive a token.    He or she would then take the token to a food vendor and order a meal either in an Eco-Takeouts™ container or on bamboo dinnerware (participant’s choice). Eco-friendly utensils were included in the fee.     The festival had several dish return stations set up to collect used containers/plates and dispense tokens in exchange.   At festival’s end, participants had three options: keep the containers or dishware, return them and receive a $5 refund, or get a token to use at a downtown Portland food cart serviced by GO Box.

As is often the case, planning the implementation took some effort.  “We had to come up with a system that was easy for vendors and festival goers,” said GO Box Founder Laura Weiss. However, working closely with festival planners, Laura and her team came up with a process she described as “seamless.”

Music lovers expressed appreciation for the reusable program in website comments such as, “…I am very proud to see this new way of preventing waste in our landfills,” and “Rock On! This is great move and congrats to those who made it happen.”

From a quantitative point of view, festival organizers have a number of stats that point to success. For example, despite a 20% increase in attendance, the festival produced the same amount of trash as in 2010. Only 40% of the waste went to landfills vs. 50% in 2010.

Want to figure out a way to make Eco-Takeouts™ work at your next event?  Contact us and we can help you!    http://ecotakeouts.com/contact.php

As a Sustainability Manager for a large food service company, Laura Weiss saw how many colleges and universities were using Eco-Takeouts™ to reduce landfill waste.  In 2010, she started GO Box, a business that provides Eco-Takeouts™ to food carts in downtown Portland, Oregon.  The containers allow customers to enjoy the convenience offered by the food carts, without having to use disposable to-go boxes.

After a pilot test with a few carts, GO Box “went live” on July 5, 2011, and now has more than 15 participating vendors and 140 subscribers.    Cart owners and customers have responded enthusiastically, and new locations are signing up each week.   The service offers three sizes: EC-09 (9”x9” high-profile, 3-compartment), EC-12 (9” x 9” low-profile/3), and the EC-11, which is 9” x 6.5”.

Process planning was a key component of the GO Box launch, just as it is with any reusable container program.  Yet the accountability system works almost the same as it does in many collegiate, healthcare, and corporate environments.  Subscribers pay an $8.50 initiation fee, which entitles them to a reusable container from any participating food cart.   Upon completing their meals, subscribers can return the container to one of several drop-off locations in downtown Portland in exchange for a token.   That token can in turn be used to receive another container the next time a food cart meal is purchased.

While collection of the used containers proved to be an initial obstacle, Laura has created solutions that work well and have generated side benefits.   For example, several brick and mortar stores agreed to maintain drop boxes.   The drop boxes bring new visitors through the doors, and some of them have become customers of these businesses. A few of the larger companies maintain drop boxes onsite at their facilities, which allow employees to return dirty containers without having to leave their buildings.  Onsite collection offers convenience for employees, and ties in to corporate sustainability initiatives.    GO Box employees empty collection boxes each day and take the containers to a commercial dishwashing facility.  Clean containers are delivered to food carts the next day and the cycle continues.

G.E.T. congratulates Laura Weiss for combining her passion for sustainability with a marketplace need to develop a viable business model.

Check back next week to read about how Laura applied her model to another venue – the Pickathon Music Festival!

As a part of its school-wide effort focused on creating a “cleaner, greener USF,” Dr. Christian Wells, Director of the Office of Sustainability, began looking for ways to reduce waste in the area of foodservice. Working with Jenna Burns, Marketing Manager, USF Dining Services/Aramark, Dr. Wells succeeding in eliminating all Styrofoam™ takeout containers in 2010. The exclusive use of
Eco-Takeouts™ is just one of several foodservice sustainability initiatives, and also complements the reusable mug program. Students enthusiastically embrace the Eco-Takeouts™ containers, and don’t mind paying the $4.00 deposit as a part of their meal plan fees.

USF has found that the Styrofoam™ ban helps the earth AND the budget. Here are just a few facts:

• Before the ban, USF used and discarded 8,000 disposable containers a week or 250,000 containers a year.

• These quantities represent 30% of all garbage generated by USF.

• By buying Eco-Takeouts™, USF Dining Services is saving at least $6000 per year.

The NBC and ABC affiliates in Tampa covered the one-year anniversary of all Eco-Takeouts™ usage in recent news broadcasts. To see video of these reports, click on these links:

Looking at USF’s No Styrofoam Policy

USF is taking green to a whole new level

In a recent blog post, Kendall Singleton, Sustainability Coordinator for UVA Dining Services, provides instructions to students on how to end their participation prior to summer break.

UVA uses the key tag (token) system as the basis for container accountability. At semester’s end, the blog post advises students on how to return rinsed containers and/or key cards, and how to get deposits returned. Specific details about the return process can be found here:

http://uvagreendining.blogspot.com/2011/05/reusable-to-go-container-refunds.html

Kendall assessed the Eco-Takeouts™ program with these words: “Our reusable to-go system has worked pretty well so far and I don’t foresee us making any drastic changes to the program in the next year or so. The large majority of the feedback [from program participants] I have received is positive, with students expressing their appreciation for the program.” While Kendall acknowledges that a “good number” of students return neither the key card nor the containers at year-end, many of them are underclassmen and will likely continue their participation in the next year.

Innovation and personal involvement help Eco-Takeouts™ programs work, and UVA’s plan is no exception. In 2010, UVA Dining Services donated Eco-Takeouts™ to a campus sorority house for use in its catering operation. By using Eco-Takeouts™, the sorority house reduced its use of Styrofoam™ for packaging meals served to sorority sisters after regular dining hours. Kendall personally delivered the boxes, and talked to the sorority sisters about the reusable container program’s importance within the overall dining sustainability initiative. She is now working with the Office of Sorority and Fraternity Life to explore the possibility of expanding the program to other houses in the Greek community.

For more information about UVA’s reusable container program, visit
http://www.campusdish.com/en-US/CSMA/Virginia/Sustainability/NewActions.htm
Cheers to UVA for using Eco-Takeouts™ as a part of its environmental footprint reduction plan!

And speaking of tokens, University of Vermont doesn’t use the standard plastic chip – it uses cow tags! As the name implies, these are the actual markers farmers use to identify livestock. While no program participant has specifically commented on the use of this unique solution, it is an example of how creative marketing and communication can add spark to a sustainability program.

By Fall 2011, UVM plans to increase the number of locations offering Eco-Takeouts™ from two locations to six, one of which is the college’s highest volume lunch location. The new semester will also bring a ten cent increase in the discount given at the register for reusable container usage, up from the current five cent discount.

I recently had the chance to ask Sodexo Marketing Assistant Jay Taylor and student David Manago some questions about the University’s reusable container program. Here are their responses:

Q: Your committee reviewed several container options. What made you decide that the Eco-Takeouts™ containers are the best solution?

Jay: We were looking for a container that is sturdy, leak-resistant and easy to clean. Our previous containers were flimsy, very leaky and, for some reason, had many nooks that made the containers difficult to clean and even more difficult to perceive as being clean. Sanitation and food safety are very important to us.

David: The container itself is very appealing to the buyer’s eye. It is sturdy, has helpful sections to divide up foods, clasps together well to ensure a tight close, and has a cool green tint to it. It is large enough for a good sized meal, though convenient enough to carry. Compared to other versions, if my memory serves me, this container seems better made, more apt to holding foods, and overall more visually appealing than its predecessors. [non G.E.T. containers used during pilot programs]

Q: What were some of the challenges and objections in launching the Eco-Takeouts™ program and how did you overcome them?

Jay: Accountability was certainly a significant issue with our pilot programs. Our pilot programs did not incorporate an accountability model, and we only received 35% of the containers back by the end of the program. Participation was also a significant issue. In order to spread awareness, we partnered with UVM’s Eco-Reps (peer educators dedicated to promoting ecological living and sustainability to fellow students) and other student groups to spread the word on a peer-to-peer level. To encourage consistent and repeated use of the program, we offer a 5-cent discount to customers every time they use an Eco-Takeouts™ instead of a single-use container, which is roughly the same amount we save.

Feedback has been very positive. We certainly aren’t hearing any complaints! Publicity has helped spread the word about the program.

David: Peer-to-peer education has really made a difference. Here at UVM, we use our Eco-Reps to share ways we can make significant changes to the amount of degradation we force upon our Earth through simple changes in our lifestyles. Eco-Reps educate their fellow students on the simplicity of the program and the BIG impact it makes with regard to UVM’s consumption and waste.

Q: How do you believe using reusable containers supports the overall goal of sustainability?

Jay: University Dining Services has been composting since before composting was cool, and using recyclable and compostable packaging in every instance that we can. Offering Eco-Takeouts™ is the next stop on our journey towards sustainable dining services, and I think it is a particularly important one. Even if compostable and recyclable packaging is sorted properly, the fact of the matter is that it is still packaging that must be collected and transported. By replacing that single-use packaging with reusable packaging, we aim to significantly reduce our environmental impact AND our solid waste management costs.

David: Reusable containers are an easy way to cut consumption and, therefore, waste on campus. For years I’ve ridiculed the [retail locations] due to the sheer amount of waste generated by them, but now it’s possible for these locations to be just as sustainable as the dining halls. This program helps support UVM’s overall goal of sustainability by giving the campus an option towards decreasing overall consumption and waste in a simple way – changing the way we eat.

For more information on University of Vermont’s Eco-Takeouts™ program and other sustainability initiatives, click on the links below.

Eco-Ware Facebook Page
http://Facebook.com/EcoWareAtUVM

Article published by UVM Communications:
http://www.uvm.edu/~uvmpr/?Page=news&storyID=11507

Article (similar to previous) published by Packaging Digest:
http://www.packagingdigest.com/article/512462-University_of_Vermont_launches_Eco_Ware_reusable_take_out_container_program.php

Article in Campus Newspaper:
http://www.vermontcynic.com/green-to-go-1.2446822

One of the tools AASHE provides is The Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System™ (STARS). STARS is a self-reporting structure to help schools measure their progress toward sustainability. STARS includes incentives for continual improvement and innovation. It also emphasizes collaboration over competition by encouraging schools to share best practices.

There are three primary categories of STARS credits: Education and Research, Operations, and Planning, and Administration & Engagement. Credits can be earned in the fourth category of Innovation as well.

Foodservice management falls under Category 2 – Operations. Credits can be earned for sustainable activities in food purchasing and waste reduction. Syracuse University, for example, won the AASHE 2009 Campus Sustainability Leadership Award. Use of Eco-Takeouts™ was cited as one of many factors in Syracuse’s selection.

Are you ready to be a STAR? Find out more about the AASHE STARS program at and about implementing reusable containers at www.ecotakeouts.com.

Below is a graph displaying a solid waste management hierarchy. Source Reduction is the most preferred tier, followed by reuse, recycling, and finally incineration and the landfill. Often people focus on the recycling tier, forgetting that reuse and ultimately source reduction are where we should direct our attention.

Individuals who lived through the Great Depression understand the concept of reduction and reuse all too well. As our nation has become more affluent, our waste per capita has increased exponentially. This is due, in part, to the influx of single-use, disposable products. The other side of this coin is simply that we can afford to waste. Over time, our behavior and social systems have changed to match these trends.

A classic example of this shift is the demise of the reusable milk jug. Not so long in the past, milk was delivered to the home daily in a reusable bottle. The used bottles were collected, sanitized, and filled again. This process of reuse was a part of daily life.

Social systems are a moving target. Change is a constant, yet we are the creators of the systems and therefore, have the ability to control the direction. Just as we can steer away from reusable milk jugs, we can shift the other way and adopt new systems to combat our waste issues.

The Eco-Takeouts™ provide a great example of a reusable system that fits within the framework of modern life. These reusable containers operate in a closed loop system. Through either automation or exchange tokens, Eco-Takeouts™ can be checked out of the dining environment and then returned later for sanitization and refilling. This process of reuse not only keeps waste out of the landfills, but also reduces the total amount of resources used to produce single use containers.

As we continue to pursue sustainability concepts, we should remind ourselves that source reduction and reuse are where the maximum benefits can be obtained. Although we can engineer all sorts of solutions to manage our waste and environmental problems, the easier path is to change our behavior and design systems that promote sustainability.

Eco-Takeouts™ in Qatar!

The Eco-Takeouts™, a series of reusable to-go containers, have now spread to the country of Qatar. In August of 2010, the Qatar Foundation adopted the Eco-Takeouts™ throughout Education City. Education City houses ten higher education institutions, eight of which are branch campuses of US-based universities. These include Virginia Commonwealth University, Weill-Cornell Medical College, Texas A&M University, Carnegie Mellon University, Georgetown University, and Northwestern University.

Christopher Silva, the Sustainability Education Coordinator for the Qatar Foundation, reported that approximately 700 of the 2,000 students at Education City use the Eco-Takeouts™. The reaction so far has been positive. “I have seen the container utilized in various events and some institutions have agreed to not offer Styrofoam containers in their cafeterias anymore,” Silva reports.

Although the initial launch was successful, Silva recognizes that it is “still a young initiative and logistically challenging, as we have eight higher education institutions in our campus, each one with its own operations.”

In today’s world, it is encouraging to see global solutions to common issues, such as waste. From the United States to Qatar, the Eco-Takeouts™ provide an effective, yet simple solution to reduce waste and develop new, eco-friendly habits.