TriplePundit • Reusable Takeout Containers Are Taking Over College Campuses, With a 99% Return Rate

We all love convenience. College students are no exception. When they dash into a dining hall or on-campus coffee shop between classes, they prefer to grab and go. Typically, those cups and containers are disposable plastics, adding to a growing waste problem for the environment and human health. The University of Pittsburgh is among the schools across the United States shifting students away from disposables and towards reusable containers. As a result, colleges are preventing tons of trash from going to landfills.

University of Pittsburgh, commonly referred to as Pitt, introduced a reusable takeout option using stainless steel containers from reuse company Usefull in two dining halls earlier this year. It’s part of the school’s commitment to reduce landfill waste by 25 percent by the end of this decade. Now, 10 months later, some 7,000 reusable containers have been checked out, diverting over 670 pounds of waste from the landfill.

Every Usefull container is equipped with a QR code linked to an app that’s scanned when a student leaves the dining facility — just like taking out a library book. The app manages check outs, sends return reminders and ensures smooth tracking. Like a library system, students are charged a small fee if they don’t return their containers on time.

The approach is working, said Alison Cove, Usefull founder and CEO. The company reports industry-leading return rates of more than 99 percent at the 20 college campuses across the U.S. where the program is in place.

“Students love it,” she said. “It keeps these containers in circulation, reducing waste and enhancing the takeout experience for students.”

Students are hungry for change

“We landed on Usefull as a solution for our waste reduction goals because of its cool tracking abilities and the unique container,” said Emmy Ray, the sustainability director for Pitt Eats. “The containers keep the food hot for at least four to five hours. So if students have to wait until after class to eat, it’s still hot.”

Beyond the convenience, students like knowing they’re making a real difference for the environment. “A plastic-free option for to-go containers at our dining hall has been a huge ask from students in our student surveys as a way to improve the campus dining experience,” Ray said.

The Usefull app shows students the environmental impact of their actions in real time, like how much waste is avoided, how much water is saved, how many plastic containers are avoided and their carbon emissions. “It really shows your personal impact,” Ray said.

Enthusiasm from students has been key to success at other campuses as well, Cove said. It’s smart for colleges to get student buy-in from the start, so Usefull actively partners with colleges in the launch phase, coming on campus to demonstrate how to use the system.

“I heard one student say, ‘Oh, this is super cool,’ and another comment, ‘I really love what the university is doing. It’s a step forward,’” she reports.

Ray and her team at Pitt work hard to raise awareness among students with signage, banners, and even TikTok videos that demonstrate how to use the containers. They also work with a student sustainability group to spread the word.

“We’re out every month showing students how to use this as a sustainable, free way of taking their food and beverages to go,” she said.

Return stations are set up with a digital tablet that reads the QR code from the student’s phone to document the return. Then, the student can drop the container in a dedicated bin. While students are allowed to keep the containers for two days, most are returned within 10 to 12 hours, Cove said.

Making a bigger splash

The dining hall reusables are so popular that Pitt began offering Usefull cups at its retail coffee locations. To kick it off, the school launched a 50-cent discount for any time a customer used a Usefull cup.
Monthly checkouts reached nearly 400 in October.

“Our goal is to steadily grow student participation month over month,” Ray said. “To support this, we’ve launched videos and monthly engagement events to raise awareness. We even hand out buttons as a visual reminder that students have this option for their to-go coffee.”

This gradual approach is common. “Many campuses like Pitt often do a crawl, walk, run approach where they start in residential dining, then move to retail and then go all in,” Cove said.”The long-term goal for our university clients is that essentially everything leaving coffee shops or in takeout form is in a returnable container.”

Some schools are already fulfilling that mission, including Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. In 2025, it became the first school in Arizona with a mandatory reusable container system. Today, it has over 10,000 users, and over 140,000 stainless steel containers have been checked out at 12 locations.
The school reports a container loss rate of only 0.26 percent, which means it’s able to circulate 99.74 percent of its inventory since the start, according to a Usefull case study.

“At any of those locations, whether it’s a cup for coffee or a bowl for your ramen, it’s in one of our reusable takeout packages,” Cove said.

Pitt is also ambitious about expanding its approach to reusables, Ray said. This month, a new recreation and wellness center on campus opened with the Usefull reusable containers and return station set up, which was included in the initial design plans.

“We also plan to continue expanding to more retail locations and implement an integrated mobile ordering system for even more ease and frequency of use by students,” Ray said.

Navigating a mindset shift

While investing in thousands of stainless steel containers might seem like a huge outlay, switching to Usefull generally leads to cost savings at universities, Cove said. Schools report savings of 35 to 45 percent compared to single-use compostable takeout packaging.

“Many universities are using compostable or biodegradable packaging options,” she said. “We call it really expensive trash. We’re able to be cost-competitive and help universities save money while improving user experience and improving the environmental outcomes.”

Most campuses achieving success with reusable take-out containers had to emphasize driving behavior change, Cove said.

“Change is hard in any arena. There can be a perception that stainless steel is bigger and looks and feels different than what people are used to in their take-out packaging. It’s retraining the brain to understand how reuse can work in these settings at a big scale,” she said. “The adoption rates are the biggest sign of success.”