Sustainability ‘To Go’
On-Campus Hospitality – March 2010
Dining at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, has introduced a new program that has greatly reduced the amount of Styrofoam packages it sends to landfills. “The team found a plastic hinged container that we could wash in the dish machine and reuse, and they logoed it with our Bama Dining logo on it,” said AJ. DeFalco, resident district manager with Aramark, the campus food service provider. “We launched it this fall into Burke, one of our four residence dining facilities, as a pilot program to see what customers would think about it.” The voluntary program, part of Aramark’s Green Thread environmental stewardship platform, uses a reusable plastic hinged container from G.E.T. Enterprises. Students sign up for the program and leave a $3 deposit that is returned to them at the end of the semester. Whenever they are taking a meal to go, they receive the container and return it later…About 40 percent of the students who dine in Burke participate in the program. “At Burke, just by adding the program, we saved more than 500 Styrofoam boxes from the landfills a week,” said DeFalco. “We would like that at 100 percent, but it is a pretty successful program, enough for the team to implement it at our largest dining facility, Lakeside…We are anticipating if we can keep the success going that potentially we could eliminate about 600,000 Styrofoam boxes into the landfill by next fall.”
Health Care Bill to Close Gaps in Coverage for Seniors
CBS42 (Birmingham) – March 23
…Plus, Hugh Lee, the director of the elder law clinic at the University of Alabama, says the bill will also close the gaps in coverage. “You have seniors who don’t qualify for Medicare, make too much money to be eligible for Medicaid, and now they’re going to have health insurance through this bill offered to them. “