Following spring break, WashU Dining Services now requires students to use ReusePass containers in the Bears Den (BD) for to-go meals during all-you-can-eat hours. This change has been met by mixed reactions from students. 

In the ReusePass system, students create an account online and generate a unique QR code on their phone. Dining workers scan this code and then connect it to a specific ReusePass container. From there, the container is used and then washed to be used again. 

While BD has increased their use of the reusable containers, retail dining locations around campus have not made the change, as most lack dishwashers to support a ReusePass system. 

Tiffany De La Roche, director of Dining Services at WashU, hopes this change will improve engagement with the previously underutilized program. 

“It’s a program that’s been around for quite some time, both with our Bon Appetit partners, who we worked with in the past, as well as our Sodexo partnership,” De La Roche said. “What we wanted to do was really highlight [the containers] and increase participation.”

Raven Lumpkins, director of Strategic Initiatives & Communications for University Services, is hopeful for increased student participation. 

“I was anticipating a little bit of resistance to change because that’s natural,” Lumpkins said. “But I was happy to see when we had a meeting recently with some student groups that people were excited about the change and were signing up in faster numbers than I anticipated.”

Since implementing the program, De La Roche said students have reported their reusable containers being wet. Dining has now taken strides to ensure the reusable containers are dry, according to De La Roche. 

“We’re going through containers so quickly that they’re not drying fast, so we’ve had to shift the setup so that we have additional staging areas to dry the containers to make sure that we’re keeping up with the demand,” she said.

Some students expressed concerns beyond the dryness of containers, such as sophomore Kate Dieffenbacher, but were still thankful the program was implemented.  

“I just get worried that they aren’t washed thoroughly enough, but I’m glad they made the move,” Dieffenbacher said. “It was the right thing to do.”

First-year Neil Kotval was glad that WashU is taking steps to decrease waste. 

“I think it’s great. I know it was an adjustment the first day or maybe two when we were using it,” Kotval said. “But having reusable containers significantly decreases the amount of processing that we have to do on the compostable containers, because they still have to be industrially processed.” 

However, some students have noticed that the dining halls can be inconsistent in their efforts to become more sustainable. First-year Julia Kahn suggested using the ReusePass containers on the weekend as well to become more sustainable. Similarly, first-year Allison Pearl noted other aspects of the dining areas that could be improved for sustainability. 

“I think if they want to be more sustainable, just have all metal silverware, and don’t use any plastic forks, and [make] the cups also be reusable,” Pearl said. “I feel like they’re doing it halfway.”

First-year Abigail Mokrzycki also commented on the difficulty of needing her phone to get food. 

“There’s been times where I’ve been unable to get food because my phone’s dead,” Mokrzycki said. 

WashU dining halls will continue expanding sustainability efforts next fall, with preparations already underway. 

“There are several initiatives that we work on with [Office of] Sustainability throughout the summer,” Lumpkins. “We’ll be doing some planning.”