Til rette vedkommende ved Studenterhusfonden

To whom it may concern at Studenterhusfonden

(English below)

Som ansatte og studerende ved Aarhus universitet er vi meget glade for at have kantiner og forplejningsmuligheder, der prioriterer økologi og bæredygtighed. Vi har dog et par forslag til, hvordan I relativt let kan tage endnu bedre hensyn til miljøet, især i forhold til problemet med plastik og engangsemballage. Dem håber vi, at i vil tage op til overvejelse. For nærmere forklaring af problemområderne, scroll ned og læs bilaget.

Kopper: Problem

Når der serveres kaffe/te til møder, kurser, konferencer osv., er der ofte kun mulighed for at drikke af skumkopper. Polystyren, som kopperne er lavet af, er miljømæssigt hensigtsfuld, når det bruges til ting, der skal holde over længere tid, men fordi produktionen og afskaffelsen kan være belastende, er det ikke særlig smart til engangskopper.

Derudover er det desværre ikke alle steder, man kan medbringe sit eget ikke-engangskrus. I Nobelparkens delí bliver man f.eks. nødt til at bruge engangskrus.

Kopper: Løsningsforslag

Vi opfordrer til, at det først og fremmest bliver muligt at medbringe sin egen kop alle steder. Den mulighed findes allerede i de fleste kantiner, men lad os få de sidste med! Det ville bidrage til at reducere affaldsproduktionen betydeligt. Ikke desto mindre forstår vi godt, at engangskrus nogle gange kan være nødvendige. I disse tilfælde kan komposterbare eller genbrugelige engangskopper være et godt alternativ.

Nogle steder pålægger gebyr for brug af engangskrus eller giver prisafslag, hvis man har sin egen kop med. Det er også en mulighed.

En generel re-evaluering af jeres emballage-kæde ville naturligvis være ideelt. Her overvejer man miljøbelastning både i produktionen, brugen og afskaffelsen af emballagen. Vi forstår og accepterer dog, at en sådan indsats må være en del af en langsigtet omlægningsplan mod mere bæredygtighed. Denne udfordring håber vi selvfølgelig også, at i vil tage op.

Salatbakker i plastik: Problem

Det er selvfølgelig rart at have en engangsboks til salatbaren, hvis man skal tage sin mad med sig. Desværre bruger mange plastikboksene, selvom de sidder lige i nærheden og spiser.

Salatbakker i plastik: Løsningsforslag

Kunne i eventuelt sætte et skilt op, som opfordrer folk til at bruge de almindelige tallerkener, hvis de ikke skal have maden med sig videre? Mange antager, at de kun kan købe salat i boksene, så tydeligere retningslinjer ville alene bidrage til at reducere affaldsproduktionen. Et lille gebyr på engangsbakker er også en mulighed.

Også her kunne en evaluering af emballage-kæden på længere sigt være anbefalelsesværdigt. Der findes mange miljøvenlige alternativer til plastikbokse, f.eks. bokse produceret af allerede genbrugt materiale.

Plastikbestik: Problem

Forbruget af plastikbestik kunne det også være godt at mindske. Her gælder det samme som for kopper og salatbakker. Derudover kan vi godt se, at problemet også er, at kantinerne ofte løber tør for almindeligt bestik, især gafler. Når der ikke er nogle gafler tilbage, så kan man kun bruge dem af plastik, også selvom man sidder lige ved kantinen.

Plastikbestik: Løsningsforslag

Vi anbefaler at flere almindelige gafler bliver købt. Her kan der naturligvis også som supplement undersøges mere miljøvenlige alternativer til plastikbestikket, når engangsbestik alligevel er nødvendigt.

Hvis I vil tage ovenstående i betragtning, vil underskriverne af dette brev derfor til gengæld love at blive bedre til at levere brugt service tilbage til kantinerne, så I ikke løber tør. På den måde kan vi hjælpe hinanden med at mindske forbruget af engangsplast.

 

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English translation:

As employees and students at Aarhus University we appreciate having canteens and catering that prioritize environmental sustainability. It is great that Studenterhusfonden puts such emphasis on organic food, for example. However, we have a few suggestions as to how you can easily improve your environmental footprint even further, especially in connection with the single-use plastic and packaging crisis. We hope you will consider the following simple recommendations. For further explanation of the problem areas, please scroll down and read the appendix.

Cups: Problem

When coffee is served at meetings, conferences etc., it is usually only possible to choose to drink from polystyrene or plastic cups. Polysterene is very hard to recycle and the production has a high energy use. It is not a good material for single use items.

Furthermore, some places do not have the option of bringing your own cup. In the Nobelpark Delí for example, it is only possible to buy coffee in disposable paper or polystyrene cups.

Cups: Suggested Solutions

We suggest that it should first of all always be possible to bring your own cups to the cafeterias to reduce waste production. However, we understand that sometimes disposable cups can be necessary. In these cases compostable or recyclable cups can be recommended, depending on the waste system used by the canteen.

Some places have small price reductions for people bringing their own cups or fees on disposable cups. This too could be an option at the university as well.

Ideally, you should consider the environmental impact of all stages of your packaging chain from source to use and disposal in connection with local waste and recycle services. However, we understand and respect that change takes time and resources, thus, this recommendation relates to a more long term reorganization plan towards sustainability.

Plastic salad boxes: Problem

It is certainly convenient to have a disposable box for the salad bar when you wish to take your food with you on the way. However, a lot of people use the plastic boxes even though they are sitting close to the canteens or in staff kitchens/offices.

Plastic salad boxes: Suggested solutions

Could it be possible for you to put up a sign encouraging people to use the ordinary plates if they are not taking their food with them elsewhere? Many people assume that they can only put the salad in the box and not on a plate, so clearer guidelines would easily reduce waste. A small charge for the boxes could also be introduced to encourage less waste.

As with the single-use cups, there are many types of environmentally-friendly food packaging that can be used when food needs to be transported. We also suggest that you consider your packaging supply and waste chain here.

Plastic cutlery: Problem

We have noticed that the canteens often run out of ordinary metal cutlery, especially forks, which are the most popular type of cutlery. When the metal fork section of the cutlery tray is empty, it is simply filled up with single-use plastic forks, even though this type of cutlery is not going to be transported/used in the canteen.

Plastic cutlery: Suggested solutions

We encourage the canteen to purchase more metal forks in order to meet the demand. Signage by the cutlery encouraging the use of metal cutlery when eating in would also be effective in terms of making customers think about their choices. As with the cups and boxes, there are many options available regarding environmentally-friendly disposable cutlery.

The signatories of this letter promise, in return, to return used plates and cutlery to the canteen for cleaning, so you will not run out so easily. Please let us work together in order to help the establishment of a more sustainable canteen solution at Aarhus University.

Underskrevet af ansatte og studerende ved AU/signed by employees and students at AU.

 

Appendix 1: What are the problems?

1: Food waste.

If food waste were a country it would be the third biggest emitter of greenhouse gases. This is because when it degrades it releases methane which is a greenhouse gas, and is much more warming than carbon dioxide. Preventing food waste with accurate demand prediction is prefered and food waste which cannot be avoided should be disposed of in a thoughtful way such as commercial composting or energy recovery, as this could minimise greenhouse gas emissions.

We are inspired by how Ikea has partnered with a company called Winnow to do this and save money.

<a href="http://www.winnowsolutions.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.winnowsolutions.com/</a>

2: Single Use Items

Many single use items are made from materials which cannot be recycled and therefore we view it as wasteful that lots of materials and energy are being used to create food and drink packaging when the material is only used for a short time before we dispose of them. We are concerned that increased energy consumption leads to climate change and particularly plastic packaging when not disposed of correctly can lead to plastic pollution on land and sea. As of 2015, globally approximately 6300 Million tonnes of plastic waste had been generated, around 9% of which had been recycled, 12% was incinerated, and 79% was accumulated in landfills or the natural environment. If current production and waste management trends continue, roughly 12,000 Million tonnes of plastic waste will be in landfills or in the natural environment by 2050.

Taken from Geyer, R., Jambeck, J. R. &amp; Law, K. L. Production, use, and fate of all plastics ever made. Sci. Adv. 3, (2017).

 

3: The Waste Hierarchy

The link below shows the waste hierarchy and our proposed approach to packaging in the catering facilities. We would welcome a discussion with you about this. We ask you to consider how waste can be minimised in your operations- this is the most important step. Reusable cutlery, cups and plates would help to avoid the creation of single use waste. It is crusial to work though options which can make it easier for your customers to use your cutlery, cups and plates and bring their own reusable takeaway cups if they are interested in taking coffee away. In some instances it may not be possible to avoid all single use packaging waste, so therefore, consider how waste can be recycled or disposed in the most favourable way.

<a href="http://www.planitinks.com/waste-hierarchy.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.planitinks.com/waste-hierarchy.html</a>

 

We want Studenterhuset and Aarhus University to continuously set an example for sustainability in Aarhus!