Have you taken a walk around the Nest at lunch lately or seen the mountain of containers that pile up at the waste sorting stations during exams and midterms?
AMS food services sells approximately 1.5 million disposable containers annually, including take-out food and drink containers, paper bags and pre-made food packaging. UBC Food Services uses 370,000 food-only compostable containers annually. According to Victoria Wakefield, UBC's Food Services purchasing manager, UBC only purchases compostable containers and recyclable coffee containers and lids, but does not track how many coffee containers are used. According to Ripple Effect, a UBC Sustainability initiative, 2,000 (73,000 a year) disposable cups are sent to the landfill everyday.
Franchises on campus are responsible for their own take-out containers.
The good news is that the containers UBC and the AMS use are all biodegradable or recyclable, but there are two pieces of bad news. Firstly, despite not being garbage, many of these containers end up in the landfill. Secondly, even the most ecologically friendly disposable containers are not the best option for the environment.
According to the most recent UBC Waste Audit, only 21 per cent of the contents of the “garbage” they sorted was actually un-recyclable waste material. The most commonly mis-sorted items were take-out containers and utensils. This means that students have been sending their utensils and containers to the landfill rather than placing them in the appropriate receptacles.
In some situations, like at UBC’s recent centennial celebration, compost and recycling stations were not provided. Although it is important for event organizers to improve on this in the future, it is also important for students to take the small amount of extra time and find the appropriate receptacle. The environmental impact of 15 compostable single use containers is equal to the impact of one plastic tupperware container. That means that you only have to use a tupperware container 16 times in order for it to be a more sustainable option than a single use compostable container.
Great "#zerowaste" stations at the Centennial Closing today. University of British Columbia and UBC Sustainability let's work together to make this better next time, okay??
Posted by UBC Student Environment Centre (SEC) on Wednesday, April 6, 2016
So what can be done to reduce the amount of disposable containers used on UBC campus? One solution would be for everyone to bring their own reusable container to school. Unfortunately, AMS and UBC Food Services are not allowed to serve food in containers students bring due to food safety standards outlined by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
As you would expect from their long-term goal of being a zero waste campus, UBC and AMS food services are both looking at institutional changes that would make eating at UBC more sustainable.
Wakefield oversees the level of sustainability for everything that UBC Food Services buys, from the food itself to the materials it is packaged in. Wakefield has been nicknamed “The Queen of Green.” First and foremost, UBC Food Services is promoting eating in according to Wakefield. Their newer outlets, such as Perugia and Mercante, offer eat-in options. Although eating in is a great way to mitigate disposable container use, many outlets still don’t offer eat in options. Furthermore, take-out is often a more convenient option for student’s busy and erratic schedules.
One way to make take-out more sustainable is to offer reusable take out containers. UBC Food Service’s Eco to Go program, currently only operation in UBC residences, does just that. Students with an Eco to Go membership card can receive food in a tupperware container. Containers can then be returned to any residence where they will be sanitized to maintain food safety and then used again. UBC Sustainability Initiative has just wrapped up a project in which students were recruited to research ways to expand the Eco to Go program, ideally creating a campus-wide program. Wakefield said that UBC Food Services is supportive of this initiative, but also realistic about the barriers to implementing a campus wide program, namely the need for extensive infrastructure to support such a program.
AMS food services also hopes to establish a program that offers reusable food containers.
“Ideally we would be able to offer a program with a good range of containers and utensils that don’t rely heavily on plastics with a system that is straightforward and user-friendly.” Jennifer Sun, the AMS Sustainability's coordinator, said via email. “We definitely welcome ideas and suggestions at AMS Sustainability as we are currently gauging the successes and areas of improvement with current campus programs like Eco-to-go and the mug sharing at Sprouts and Seedlings.”
Uli Laue, AMS director of operations, demonstrated AMS support of this plan. Laue explained that in preparation for a future food container exchange system, the AMS has installed dishwashers and storage space in all its food outlets.
In the long run, it looks like UBC and AMS will reduce the amount of disposable containers used on campus. In the meantime, thousands of disposable containers are still being used at UBC everyday. Students interested in reducing their impact can choose options with less packaging, eat in more often and be more mindful when sorting their waste.
As Wakefield put it, “it’s important to keep having these conversations [about increasing sustainability] at UBC. It is a conversation we need to have with everybody, AMS and UBC Food Services, campus sustainability organizations, students and food safety [officials]. Our landfills are full and we have to find better ways [to be sustainable]. The only way to do that is to have people saying, ‘What about this? What about that?’ And know the reasons why some things haven’t worked in the past.”