Students and UBC admin are both concerned about the lack of Green2Go takeaway containers in residence dining halls.
Green2Go is a container exchange program in residence dining rooms at UBC, but students interviewed said there often aren’t any available. Residents choosing to use the Green2Go containers can save 20 cents on their meal with a two-dollar deposit. Otherwise, every disposable container costs an additional 75 cents to the meal.
Associate Director of Residence Dining Loriann McGowan said she was “painfully aware” of the lack of the containers.
McGowan said the boxes must have not been returned by users, but said UBC was not sure why students were not bringing them back.
“We charge the students a $2 deposit so they're effectively holding money in their hands. So why don't they bring it back to get their deposit back?” McGowan said.
Residents raised personal and environmental concerns around the lack of containers.
Wyat Leung, a first-year student who lives at Orchard Commons, said the supply of Green2Go boxes has significantly decreased from September.
“For the first two weeks of school, I started noticing that you had to go down before a specific time, around 6 p.m. to get a Green2Go box. After that, they would run out. But now, even though I go down at 6 p.m. there isn't any Green2Go available, which is kind of sad,” Leung said.
Kylie Lau, a first-year engineering student, said she has no option but to pay an extra 75 cents for taking out with a disposable container when Green2Go boxes are out, as she would like to eat her meal while keeping up with her studies.
“I have to pay [for the disposable box], there's no other option… [The dining rooms are] super busy and crowded so you cannot work in those conditions. So, you have to pay 75 cents just to go back to your room.”
McGowan told The Ubyssey that residence dining has over 5,000 Green2Go containers in circulation for 4,500 residents.
“Typically, about 14 to 15 per cent of students take a takeout box of some sort. That is enough to turn over containers, three times the population that's going to use them. We have adequate stock,” McGowan said.
According to the UBC Food Services website, 160,000 disposable boxes enter the waste stream at UBC each year. The Green2Go program was implemented to mitigate the waste generated.
Yet Carly Hilbert, a first-year student in the faculty of land and food systems finds this policy contradicts the current Green2Go situation.
“I know most kids are getting the paper boxes, and that is not helping UBC to reach the zero-waste goal in the slightest ... Environmentally, the impact [of not having Green2Go boxes] is getting big,” Hilbert said.
However, McGowan emphasized the effectiveness of the Green2Go program, evidenced by students noticing the lack of containers. She strongly encouraged students to bring the containers back to keep the flow of circulation and the sustainability aspect of the program functioning.
“We can't manage how those containers come back once they leave us. That's in the hands of the students,” she said.
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