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State goes through about half a million
Styrofoam takeout containers every year.
Penn State provides an incentive
to get students involved—after the tenth
use the student gets a free meal. Once
students have used the container, they
return it to the foodservice department
for washing and sanitizing. According to
Sostarecz, each container needs 10 to 15
uses to equal the carbon dioxide cost of
disposable containers.
The great thing is that it's not just the
freshmen who attended the orientation
who are using the containers. "Peer-to-
peer and positive feedback is one of the
best ways to change behavior," Sostarecz
says. "Getting those first 450 containers
out really influenced students."
Despite the success of this program,
Sostarecz says her "pride and joy" has been
Leanpath. Through this national program,
Penn State dining services has scales in
kitchens on its University Park campus
that measure and track food waste. Each
is attached to a tablet with the Leanpath
program on it. When an employee throws
away food, the tablet sends the user
through a series of questions about what
the food is and why it's being thrown
away. The dining department is now
starting to include this in its forecasting
and planning. "We've looked at top wasted
items and how we can create new recipes
to use them," says Sostarecz.
There's a front-of-the-house
component, too. A device by the compost
bin, where students scrape their plate,
tells students the weight of their discarded
food, and how much food has been
wasted overall.
Since the introduction of Leanpath a
year ago, the university's food waste on this
campus has dropped by about 30 percent.
Next up for Sostarecz is her new
campaign, "Reduce, Recycle, Rethink,"
which she hopes will help students realize
that recycling isn't all it's believed to
be. "It's amazing, it's all changing so
quickly," she says.
Amanda Baltazar is a freelance writer based
in Anacortes, Wash.
