LiveGreen: Exciting changes at Nebraska Cafe

Last year, Sodexo took the last step to eradicate Styrofoam from all of its restaurants and cafes on campus – a change requested by diners – by changing to compostable clamshell to-go containers.

User feedback also has helped with the introduction of reusable plates for dining in the Nebraska Cafe. If you are taking your food to go, please continue to use the to-go containers. Reusable plates are not to leave the cafe.

Reusable plates are available at the salad bar, and you can ask your cafe server for a reusable plate at all other food stations. In addition to improving your dining experience in the Nebraska Cafe, these plates will reduce waste and keep costs lower.

While visiting the Nebraska Cafe, you also may have noticed a change to the tray return area. To help support the reusable plate program, as well as ensure items left on the tray return are recycled and prepped for composting (we aren’t composting yet, but we’ll let you know), we are asking users to help sort the materials they place on the tray return.

Please sort items into three categories:

• Top level: Landfill — soft plastics, coffee/soda cups, glass
• Middle level: Recyclables — plastics Nos. 1-7, plastic containers, aluminum or tin cans
• Bottom level: Reusable plates, fiber to-go containers, any food waste and napkins.

There are table tents in place to help you prep your items, and graphics next to the tray return to help when you get there — see the picture above.

Many of us like to compact our trash before we leave the table — you know, you stuff your Saran wrap and banana peel into your yogurt cup — but resist that urge. Those three items will go on three different levels at the tray return.

The cafe sorters behind the tray return are busy (did you know the Nebraska Cafe serves more than 6,000 meals a week?) and don’t have time to take everything apart to sort it. By sorting items on the tray return, you are helping to decrease your waste and the waste on campus.

Thank you for your help with this new initiative. If you have questions about where to place a particular item, please post a comment here or email LiveGreen. If you have other comments, please submit them via the comment cards in the cafe, near the condiments station.