By Will Atwater
Single-use, compostable and recyclable takeout containers are on their way out at some North Carolina universities.
Stainless steel is taking their place.
This fall, UNC Greensboro introduced reusable stainless steel foodware in its campus dining halls, joining UNC Wilmington to become just the second university in the state to adopt the model. The goals are to eliminate waste created by disposable and compostable containers and to address the durability and food safety concerns associated with reusable plastic ones.
The containers are provided by USEFULL, a Boston-based company that helps colleges and universities transition from plastic takeout foodware to more durable stainless steel bowls. Chartwells Higher Ed, which manages UNCG’s dining services, contracted with USEFULL to implement the change.
“Transitioning away from plastic toward plastic-free reusables is a major step forward for UNCG,” said Aimee Langford, Chartwells’ resident district manager.
UNC Wilmington reported its USEFULL results last spring.
“In our first three months, 816 students checked out containers nearly 2,800 times, and only 14 went missing,” said Feletia Lee, the university’s chief sustainability officer. “That’s pretty impressive, given that if [this had been] our previous program, the numbers would’ve been flipped — we would’ve lost 2,000 boxes.”
UNCG has been tracking student use of the new bowls. In October alone, the containers were checked out more than 2,500 times — an average of about 80 a day, Langford said.
Before the switch, UNCG used a reusable plastic container program that required a token system and lacked tracking, which led to high losses and replacement costs. Langford said the USEFULL system has solved that problem with a more streamlined approach to checkouts.
Students download the USEFULL app, request a container at the dining hall register and have their app scanned to check it out. After filling the bowl with food and taking it to go, they return it to a designated station on campus, scan a QR code and drop it in a collection box for cleaning. If students don’t return a container within 48 hours, they are charged $1 for each additional day, which Langford said helps ensure that bowls get returned — and provides funds to replace any that go missing.
“When USEFULL came into the picture, they said, ‘Hey, we’ve got this program…’” Langford said. The company now oversees the checkout and tracking process, which she said has made the system more user-friendly and is expected to significantly reduce annual replacement costs.
Jaslyn McKinney, a UNCG junior studying environmental sustainability, said the USEFULL app is more engaging than the previous one because it tracks each checkout and shows users the positive environmental impact of their reusables.
“I’m looking at it now — it says I’ve saved 6.2 gallons of water just by checking out the containers I have,” McKinney told NC Health News in a phone interview.
For some students, the switch to stainless steel carryout bowls reflects a deeper concern about the environmental and health effects of plastic waste. Amber Fairchild, a UNCG senior studying biology, said she’s mindful of the amount of waste generated on campus — especially in labs.
“We go through a lot of waste in our lab, but every step the university and I can take to reduce our carbon footprint and limit exposure to pollutants and environmental hazards is really important to me,” she said.
Marching toward circularity
For years, environmental advocates have warned about plastic waste in the United States. The 2020 Keep America Beautiful National Litter Study estimated there were nearly 50 billion pieces of litter along U.S. roadways and waterways at the time of the survey.
In North Carolina, researchers from N.C. State University and North Carolina Sea Grant reported in 2023 that billions of microplastic particles flow from the Pamlico Sound into the Neuse River each year. That same year, litter cleanup cost North Carolina taxpayers about $56 million, according to a report released in 2025.
Beyond its economic and environmental burden, plastic pollution is also an emerging public health concern. Recent research has linked microplastic exposure to inflammatory and hormonal effects that could play a role in conditions like endometriosis — a painful disorder in which tissue similar to the uterine lining grows outside the uterus. A 2023 Duke University study also found possible connections between microplastic particles and a brain protein associated with Parkinson’s disease and certain dementias.
Despite mounting evidence about the environmental and human health impacts of plastic waste, efforts to curb it at the local level often stall. Many policymakers continue to lean on recycling as the primary solution — even as experts warn that the current system is deeply flawed and that a shift toward reuse and circular systems is needed.
Circularity is the idea that products should be reused or recycled in closed-loop systems rather than discarded — a model environmentalists say is necessary to curb plastic pollution and move beyond single-use packaging.
Though adoption of this model continues to move at a glacial pace across much of society, college campuses are potentially fertile ground for the concept to take off, according to USEFULL founder Alison Cove.
Cove explained that the shift isn’t driven by state legislation, but by universities adopting internal directives — such as zero-waste or plastic-free goals — that then move through the institution for implementation.
“We can help fulfill that goal that’s largely missing when we look at community-based implementations to date,” Cove said. “There are very few legislative mandates, especially in the U.S., [but] internationally, there are more efforts, and you’ll see more progress toward the circular economy.”
Overcoming obstacles
One advantage universities have when adopting reusable foodware systems is access to large-scale commercial dishwashers — an essential component for keeping the containers clean and the model running. That’s a major barrier for places such as public K-12 schools, many of which no longer have full-service kitchens capable of washing and sanitizing reusable containers.
However, Cove said there are creative workarounds for communities that lack a centralized wash facility.
“I would argue that a decentralized solution makes more sense in a community-based setting — encouraging municipalities to provide grants for restaurants to expand their dishwashing capacity and paying them to handle the washing — rather than building a single centralized hub,” she said.
Unlike on college campuses, Cove said, the cost of operating a centralized wash system for an entire town may not be economically feasible.
“It’s very cost-prohibitive in the long run, because every time you have to pick up [containers] and transport [them] around town, it adds … costs and degrades the environmental benefit that we’re working toward.”
As communities explore scalable reuse models beyond campuses, universities are emerging as testing grounds — and word spreads when a system shows promise. Sean MacInnes, UNCG’s sustainability specialist, said UNC Greensboro taps into sustainability networks within the UNC System and across the Southeast to share best practices.
“We talked to UNC Wilmington before implementing this to learn about their experience,” MacInnes said. ”We’re happy to share our experience with USEFULL with anybody who wants to reach out to us.”
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