Reusable to-go container giveaway – January 20th

Nearly a quarter of a million polystyrene clam shells (aka Styrofoam to-go boxes) leave Wake Forest dining locations every year. The clam shells are not recyclable in the area.

In conjunction with the Erase the Waste campaign in campus dining, the office of sustainability and our campus dining partners are distributing re-usable to-go boxes to any member of the Wake Forest community who takes food to go from the Fresh Food Co., the Magnolia Room, and/or the grill in Benson. The boxes cannot be used at the national brand outlets on campus.

The boxes will be distributed from 11:00 am until 2:00 pm on Wednesday, January 20th in front of the Fresh Food Co. (aka The Pit).  Additional boxes will be available at the Fresh Food Co. (FFCo.) on the 21st and 22nd on a limited basis. After that, diners can purchase boxes at the sundry store.

The new program offers diners the opportunity to take their food to go and to deliver used boxes to a number of convenient drop-off locations, including FFCo., Benson grab-n-go, the Magnolia Room, and the North campus sundry. At the point of drop-off, cashiers will give diners a tag that they can put on their key chains. Each tag allows a diner to get a clean to-go box the next time he/she wants to take food to go. No more need to carry around dirty boxes or to have to wash them. The used boxes will be washed and sanitized by dining staff alongside the dishes in the FFCo.

The reusable to-go program complements the trayless dining environment in the all-you-care-to-eat dining locations and the move to bulk condiment dispensers, which has reduced the number of condiment bottles from the waste stream by hundreds every week. The Erase the Waste campaign in dining supports the university’s waste reduction goals.