A sustainable lunch—is it the box that counts?

I’ve been a bring-my-lunch-from-home person for most of my life, apart from two standout exceptions. As I look back, both instances involve stuffing my face.

At my elementary school, students inexplicably were allowed to volunteer on the serving line in exchange for free lunch. (There’s a great food safety story here about my brother sneezing into a vat of chili, but we’ll save that one for another time.) I always chose chicken nugget day for my charitable acts, because it meant I could stuff some extra nugs in my pockets and eat them on the playground. No, I was not one of the popular kids.

Later in life, upon arriving at Syracuse University, I was flabbergasted by the huge wall of self-serve cereal options. Since my mom considered Berry Berry Kix to be sugar cereal, not one bite of Captain Crunch had ever crossed my lips. Couple that with an ice cream machine, a Burger King in my dorm basement and, yes, more chicken nuggets, and it’s a wonder I didn’t graduate looking like our mascot, Otto the Orange.

But back to the lunchboxes. My mom also was vehemently anti-plastic lunch baggie, which meant my sandwiches traveled in square Tupperware tubs. In high school, I carried my grapes and string cheese in a metal throwback box emblazoned with cartoons of the band Weezer. I still wasn’t cool—but I was pretty sustainable.

It wasn’t until college that I encountered the Great White Whale of noncommercial takeout: polystyrene. Sure, I’d taken home plenty of restaurant doggie bags that actually were white foam boxes, but never before had it been a daily affair—and a wasteful one at that. Every time I wanted chicken nuggets to-go, another polystyrene container met its fate in the trash. This being 2003, SU didn’t offer any sort of green option, though they’ve since joined the ranks of schools that provide students with a reusable box. Elsewhere, compostable containers, like those at UCLA Dining, are catching on. There, Sustainability Manager Emma Sorrell says, logistical factors like teaching students to return packaging are standing in the way of the school going reusable.

I’m curious to see what catches on among operators: reusable containers or those that can be composted. While 80 percent of operators surveyed in FSD’s 2015 College and University Census said they were increasing their use of locally sourced food, no similar study easily is found for sustainable packaging. But it could be the next big step toward a greener meal.