Photo by Sacha Irick
In a drive to “turn the tides” on the school’s lackluster history of environmentalism, reusable plastic to-go boxes will be offered along with the already-provided compostable ones.
Students wishing to take food with them are faced with the choice to either obtain the green plastic containers for a $5 deposit or a disposable box tacked with a 25 cent fee, said Dining Services General Manager Randy Penwell.
“We feel like we’re giving options to people,” Penwell said. “We’re an options business.” Penwell said he pushed for the program for more than two years, and that with approval from the administration and SGA the plan finally became reality.
“At the end of the day, the objective here is to be more sustainable and to reduce the [environmental] footprint that we currently have,” Penwell said. “The important thing to take into consideration is that it doesn’t cost anybody anything. There’s a five dollar deposit on each box, but that will be refunded when you return the box.”
Penwell dismissed the economic benefits of the program, citing environmental and cultural benefits instead.
“We have an obligation to take care of the earth, and I don’t think we do a very good job at it,” Penwell said. “We’re a very wasteful society. We buy and we dispose.
“It’s going to be a big change here,” he said. “It’s going to be a change in the culture.”
Penwell said the program is still in its early stages, with only one location available for students to deposit the boxes to be cleaned in Nature’s Edge. After dropping the box off at marked depositories, students will receive a token that represents a paid deposit. The objective is for students to take the token and exchange it for a clean box at their next meal.
“The first one is going to be inside the Wave’s [cafe] and that’s to demonstrate how it works, but the long-term objective is to get them around campus, at the dorms,” Penwell said. “I’d also like to eventually roll this into School of Law and Drescher.”
Penwell emphasized the user-friendly nature of the program. He said the boxes are microwavable and that deposits could be made using meal points. Options from past years will also remain available.
“If they want to use the compostable box, that’s fine, but we’re going to charge for that — 25 cents for the large box and 20 for the small one,” Penwell said. “And that’s our cost. That’s what it costs us. So the consumer will end up subsidizing their own behavior.”
Penwell said a potential misconception about the program is that Dining Services is trying to “nickel and dime” students. “Nothing could be further from the truth,” he said. Instead, he said the green box program is a chance to make a positive statement.
Penwell said that while SGA was not unanimously in favor of the program, their support was paramount to its success.
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Follow Nate Barton on Twitter: @TheNateBarton
As published in the Sept. 5 issue of the Pepperdine Graphic.
