University of Hawaii at Manoa dining facilities introduce reusable takeout containers

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – The University of Hawaii at Manoa launched a sustainability program for busy students grabbing food to go.

Taelor Ferrer is a sophomore and lives in student housing. Like most students, she often just comes to the dining hall at UH Manoa’s Gateway House for takeout.

Now, while she puts down the books for just a bit, there’s something else she’s carrying these days — a green, three-compartment reusable lunch box.

“I like it because it is reusable and it’s pretty convenient, and I like the size of the container. I can fit a lot of different things and I can kind of put it in different compartments,” said Ferrer.

For a one-time fee of $5, students get a container to use, replacing single-use takeout boxes.

So far, more than 1,400 students have elected to go green.

The process is simple. A student walks in with a reusable container, goes to the designated bin and pushes it in. Then they go to the front desk and get another container that’s all nice and clean.

David Akana, interim director of UH student housing, says more green containers are being used. He praises Sodexo Hawaii, the catering service at UH dining halls, for introducing the reusable container program.

“We saw student willingness to use reusable containers and embrace sustainability before this,” Akana said. “They just needed opportunities in their daily life to be able to do it.”

“It is pretty convenient because I can just trade it in really quickly and grab a new one just so I can grab food and go,” said Ferrer.

This program is offered at both the Gateway House and central dining hall at Hale Aloha.

“They can go load up with as much food as they want. The only catch is that they have to be able to close the container,” said Akana.

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