August 20th, 2009
From Green Right Now Reports
A year after showing up and discovering all the trays had vanished fron their dining halls, many college students returning to campus this fall will find more “green” changes. ARAMARK Higher Education is introducing a re-usable “to go” food container for use at the campus dining halls.
ARAMARK, which operate food services at more than 600 colleges and universities across North America, said it will roll out its new Green Thread program at many of the campuses it serves. The company projects the program will divert more than two million disposables from landfills during the 2009-2010 school year.
“Through our Green Thread environmental stewardship platform, ARAMARK continues to look for ways to reduce our environmental impact,” Michael Leone, Senior Vice President of ARAMARK Higher Education, said in a statement. “The re-usable ‘to go’ container program is the next phase of our ongoing plan to strive toward zero waste and support the sustainability goals of our partner campuses.”
ARAMARK said it successfully piloted the re-usable containers at several campuses last year, including Baylor University, University of Florida, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Peace College (NC) and Salem College (NC). Since implementing the re-usable “to go” containers in fall 2008, Baylor University reduced disposable container usage by 40 percent.
Last year, ARAMARK implemented a trayless dining program at the majority of its campus partner locations, which yielded “significant reductions” in energy, water, cleaning agents, food waste and waste removal, the company said. The new re-usable containers are dishwasher-safe and go through the same cleaning process as the dinnerware used in campus dining halls.
“Student feedback from the pilot program was very positive,” Leone said. “Everyone on campus immediately understood the reduction in landfill waste, when compared with a traditional, disposable container. Our program also commits to recycling these re-usable products at the end of their useful life.”
Green Thread was introduced in 2008 by ARAMARK to encompass a range of environmental stewardship programs and practices that can be offered to its clients.
