Campus Caterers Demonstrate Sustainability Efforts on Waste Reduction

Did you know that in the past year, the catering outlets have been joining hands with Campus Services Office to reduce disposable waste and food waste sending to the landfill?

Since fall semester 2019, there were no plastic straws, non-biodegradable cutlery and stirrers provided in most of the catering outlets which saved 120,000 plastic straws every month. We are encouraged to bring our reusable meal boxes for takeaway with discount offer, and biodegradable cutlery sets and meal boxes were provided if needed.

The reopening of LG7 canteen also demonstrated the University’s strong sustainability efforts in meeting the waste reduction targets of cutting half by 2020. With the centralized dishwashing facility and dehydrating system, the contractor is now more effective in separating food waste and general trash from the dishes. The total amount of collected food waste from canteens was 50% higher than previous year. In the newly renovated LG5 24-hour food zone, cleaning and food collection facility were in place to encourage food waste recycling by campus community. All the collected food waste from our canteens, student hostels, staff quarters, offices are sent to the Government’s Organic Waste Treatment Facilities in Siu Ho Wan on a daily basis for turning into biogas for electricity generation whilst the residues from the process can be produced as compost for landscaping and agriculture use.

The Campus Services Office is now exploring options for replacing one-time use drinking lids and chopsticks. If you can think of other ways of reducing waste on campus, please share with us at green@ust.hk .