Green2Go is an environmentally friendly choice for getting your food “to-go” from the Penn State Dining Commons. Instead of using polystyrene boxes, which take around one million years to fully decompose (not sarcasm), you can now pay a one time, refundable fee of five dollars and take a step toward reducing your carbon footprint.
By Caitlin Wolper
How it works:
– You pay the refundable fee (as mentioned before) and get your new “to-go” box.
– You fill it, eat out of it, and then wash it so there are no large residues left behind.
– Then, you bring it back to the Pollock Dining Commons and put it in a designated bin.
– From there, you can either get a new box or a carabineer to hold on to (to show that you have paid the five dollars), which ensures that you can get a box the next time you opt for carry-out.
– At the end of the semester (or any time you want before that), you can get your five dollar deposit back.
By Caitlin Wolper
The boxes themselves are lightweight, have more than enough room for all the food you need and are conveniently tinted green to remind you of the good you’re doing for the earth. The containers are also microwave safe (recommended maximum time to have it in the microwave is around 2 minutes), are built well for traveling and contain liquids (like all your sauces) better than the original polystyrene take-out boxes. They also fit into the dorm mini-fridges very nicely.
As of this week (and while limited supplies last) you can get a free t-shirt when you become a part of the program. Only 13 containers were sold during the first lunch they were available, but they are steadily becoming more popular as time progresses.
By Caitlin Wolper
As of right now, this is only a pilot program going on in the Pollock Dining Commons. If it is successful, Penn State will hopefully spread the program to other dining operations university wide.
The dining commons uses about 495,000 polystyrene containers a year. Green2Go will drastically help reduce the amount of plastics going to landfills. It is a reusable, recyclable and easy option for all those getting take-out on campus.