USEFULL containers are on the go
USEFULL containers for to-go college dining, invented by Mount Holyoke College alum Alison Rogers Cove ’12, recently debuted at Case Western Reserve University.
Eating on the go can be convenient, tasty and economical — but the single-use plastics that package takeout food can interfere with sustainability goals.
In 2021, Mount Holyoke College began offering reusable containers for meals on the go. The containers come from USEFULL, a company started by alum Alison Rogers Cove ’12. Now other colleges and universities are jumping on the USEFULL bandwagon.
An article for the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that Case Western University in Cleveland, Ohio, is upgrading its to-go containers to USEFULL’s stainless steel storage. The containers don’t leach plastic chemicals into the food and keep food hot or cold for much longer.
Case Western is one of 15 colleges and universities that offer USEFULL containers, with five others in the pipeline.
In an interview with the paper, Cove said she's learned that for reusable containers to catch on, there must be a mandate requiring their use, or at least they should be the default choice.
Otherwise, people will be slow to embrace the change, Cove said. “We're all creatures of habit.”
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