H&D aims to eliminate paper waste

By Anita Alem     11/18/13 6:00pm

Housing and Dining is currently working to create a sustainable takeout container system for use in the serveries, according to H&D Senior Business Director David McDonald.

"One of the things we've been grappling with for years is a defined takeout program," McDonald said. "We don't have a [policy] more defined than just a paper plate and a paper cup and some plastic utensils. We've been really struggling with this over the years to find a middle ground that works for everybody, and we haven't figured it out yet. Hopefully, we can create some dialogue among the students, which is hard to do on this campus because of the 11 distinct college governments [that come with the residential college system]."

McDonald said he has been communicating with the EcoReps at each college and with the Student Association about the best way to serve the student body. He said H&D is considering letting students pay $5 in tetra points by swiping their ID card for a plastic container. Students could then return the container for a refund of their points, after which H&D would wash the containers for reuse. These containers would potentially have one large compartment and two small ones and would function as snapware.

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McDonald said students often consider taking their own plastic containers into the serveries for takeout meals but that this is a health code violation in Houston because the container is not washed and regulated by the servery. McDonald also said students who bring the food into their college commons on a ceramic plate and then transfer it to their own plastic container are practicing bad servery behavior that could be considered looting.

McDonald said health code violations also occur if students use the same plate they previously ate off of to get second helpings. He also said eating at the station or in line is discouraged for the same reasons.

"If you use a dirty plate, we will ask you to drop it off and take a clean plate," McDonald said. "But we can't defend against all of these [violations]. If we see people eating at the station, we'll warn you that it's not good hygiene and that you should think of your fellow students."

However, McDonald said he encourages students to use reusable water bottles to minimize waste from paper cups. He said this would not violate the health code because bottles should not touch any of the nozzles on the water dispensaries. 

Lovett College senior Brian Strasters said he conducted a survey to gauge the student body's interest in implementing plastic takeout containers. He said his findings concluded that most students would use these containers in order to take food back into their dorm rooms or studying areas for academic reasons and that the majority of students would be interested in to-go boxes, but would prefer that the paper plates remained in the servery.

According to McDonald, if H&D implemented plastic containers, the servery would discontinue the use of paper plates altogether to minimize cost and waste. He said H&D spends approximately $100,000 each year on to-go paper products and that purchasing a reusable container for every student would cost about $15,000 and save money that the department could use to improving the food in the serveries.

"We're spending $35 per person on paper, which doesn't even count all the Chinaware and tumblers," McDonald said. "The idea is we want to spend money on the food, not the plates - that's kind of our motto right now. I want all of us to help each other; I can help students with the rates if they help us out, too. We're trying to figure out a more economical takeout program, and if I could get [H&D's] stuff back, that would be great."

However, Section 2(c) of the Rice University Campus Housing Agreement for the 2013-14 academic year states, "Disposables are available for take out, but is not All You Care To Eat [sic]." 

McDonald said that although H&D recognizes that plastic containers are not the perfect fix, a more drastic change might disrupt the normal flow in the servery.

According to McDonald, the issue with implementing a to-go policy arises within the residential college structure at Rice. He said it becomes difficult to control the use of plastic containers when students do not have a few centralized dining halls and one commons.

"We've been toying around with [the idea of plastic containers] for several years and seeing if this is something students would be interested in doing," McDonald said. "[But] we don't really have any restrictions on if you take a China plate out of the servery. At the end of the day, we realized, we have no defense against that. But we're not against the takeout either. We're just trying to find a better, more environmentally friendly way to administer [a] takeout program without paper products."

Martel College freshman Ly Nguyen said she prefers using plastic containers to the paper products.

"I think replacing the plastic bowls and paper [plates] with these to-go containers would reduce waste tremendously and would be extremely convenient for students who wish to take their food outside of the commons," Nguyen said. "I would definitely use them."

Hanszen College freshman Peter Yun said he was skeptical of the initiative.

"I strongly believe Rice students wouldn't really use this resource until they were presented with how and exactly why using these containers would benefit the environment," Yun said. "Also, it would have to be easily accessible to students because most students wouldn't go out of their way to get the container."

McDonald said he wants H&D to work with students to find a system that is amenable to everyone.

"[H&D] is here to work with people, but we can't break code," McDonald said. "But at the end of the day, I'm here to talk with you. If anybody ever wants to come see me, they can come talk to me anytime. We're here to solve this [issue] together. Again, we want to spend our budget on food, not the paper."

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