COA eliminates to-go plastics
College of the Atlantic is the first school in the US to fully eliminate disposable plastic foodware in all retail dining operations.
A reusable to-go ware program at College of the Atlantic is set to keep over 50,000 pieces of disposable plastic out of the waste stream and help the school meet its Break Free From Plastics pledge.
The school is utilizing stainless steel reusable to-go containers, insulated tumblers, and sporks, and establishing an app-based checkout system for the items in partnership with Reuzzi. COA will be the first campus in the country to use reusable stainless steel sporks to replace disposable cutlery, the first to fully eliminate disposable plastic foodware in all retail dining operations, and among the 1% of campuses in the US experimenting with the implementation of digital tracking apps that allow students and others to check out dishes the same way they check out a library book, according to the Post-Landfill Action Network (PLAN).
The program is supported by grant funding from the Marine Debris Foundation—a nonprofit charitable partner of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a generous, steep discount from stainless steel ware provider Klean Kanteen, and app designer Reuzzi. It was designed by Linnea Goh ’25 as part of her fellowship with PLAN’s Atlas Zero Waste Project.
“Klean Kanteen is proud to be a part of this program to eliminate single-use items on college campuses,” said Caroleigh Pierce, head of partnerships and community engagement at Klean Kanteen. “We have confidence in this program and that PLAN will successfully replicate it across the country, which will have a huge impact on how universities manage their waste and contribute to a cleaner environment.”
COA was the first campus to sign PLAN’s Break Free From Plastics Pledge in 2019, committing to the elimination of all single-use disposable plastics. With the implementation of this program, COA will accomplish that goal for academic year operations and will become the first campus in the country to do so, PLAN founder Alex Freid said.
“We are so excited to support Linnea and the team at COA, and we’re proud of all the hard work and creativity that went into bringing this experiment to life,” Freid said. “We’re looking forward to developing a case study around this program and making sure that successes and lessons learned from this experience can be shared with campuses nationwide.”
Colleges and universities have been experimenting with implementing reusable to-go programs for a decade, Freid said, but campuses have struggled with container retention rates as low as 30%, resulting in high annual replacement costs. In the 2022–2023 academic year, campuses began experimenting with app companies to track reusable containers with QR codes, which has resulted in return rates above 96%, with some campuses achieving 99% returns, resulting in significant cost savings and sustainability impacts, Freid said.
“Ending the marine debris crisis requires coordinated action within communities, industries, institutions and governments. By empowering college students to motivate and lead their peers toward results-oriented actions, we are shoring up the next generation to continue the critical work of environmental protection,” said Marine Debris Foundation executive director Susan R. Sherman.
COA was one of the first colleges to take part in PLAN’s Atlas Zero Waste Project in 2020, and to this day maintains the highest score that has been assessed, holding first place on PLAN’s Top 10 Zero Waste Campuses since that time. As part of Goh’s fellowship with the Atlas project, she completed a proposal and comprehensive return-on-investment analysis for the reusable ware initiative, making COA one of the first campuses to complete the process.
PLAN’s research has shown that these programs can easily cover the operational and logistical costs for collecting and washing reusable dishes through the cost savings from the avoided purchase of disposables. In 2024, 11 campuses across the US completed this comprehensive assessment, proving a total potential cost savings of $7.7 million dollars with the proposed elimination of 18.6 million pieces of disposable foodware.
“We are so grateful to the Post Landfill Action Network, the Marine Debris Foundation, and Klean Kanteen for helping make this happen,” Goh said. “With their support, we will be able to completely eliminate disposable dishes from our daily operations, making us one step closer to the goals set out in our Discarded Resources and Material Management Policy and our Zero Waste Strategic Vision.”
While COA’s small size makes full campus implementation easier than at large universities, projects at a number of individual dining halls around the country, some serving thousands of students a day, have proven that a reusable system can be practical, economical, and scalable, Freid said. Such an expansion would have significant environmental impacts, he said.
“Large institutions can spend over a million dollars a year on single-use foodware, and reusable to-go programs can be implemented for a fraction of the cost. If all college campuses in the U.S. implemented this program, we could see the elimination of more than 1.33 billion pieces of single-use disposable plastics every year,” he said.
