Sustainability

Coffee Discounts

Bring your own mug to any of our retail locations and receive $.25 off espresso drinks. Drip coffee refills are $.99.

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Dining at Bob's Place Without a Tray

In order to reduce our carbon footprint, we are taking a closer look at our environmental impact. When students use plates without trays, the amount of food waste decreases by one ounce per plate.

Research also shows less energy is consumed, and it reduces the amount of water and detergents used. It takes ¼ gallon of water to wash a tray. For 20 meals a week, that’s 4 gallons, or skipping one shower a month.

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Composting on Campus

New bins have begun appearing at dining locations around campus, with a focus on reducing, reusing, and recycling waste. Along with the appearance of the new bins comes the replacing of plastic and Styrofoam products with compostable “spud ware,” sugarcane fiber plates, and corn cups. This is all in collaboration with the University of Idaho Sustainability Center Food System Committee, in an effort to reduce the University’s carbon footprint, and become carbon neutral by 2030. Volunteers will be on hand to educate students and staff by demonstrating how to sort materials into recycling, composting, and garbage containers.

“We have worked for two years to set up composting for campus dining on campus, and everything is now coming together... All pre and post consumer food waste from campus dining, including Bob’s, the undergraduate dining hall, is now composted. This will amount to 70-100 tons of food waste being composted rather than thrown away, and should amount to approximately a 90% reduction in waste from Campus Dining,”  -Darin Saul, University of Idaho Sustainability Center Director

New bins have begun appearing at dining locations around campus, with a focus on reducing, reusing, and recycling waste. Along with the appearance of the new bins comes the replacing of plastic and Styrofoam products with compostable “spud ware,” sugarcane fiber plates, and corn cups. This is all in collaboration with the University of Idaho Sustainability Center Food System Committee, in an effort to reduce the University’s carbon footprint, and become carbon neutral by 2030. Volunteers will be on hand to educate students and staff by demonstrating how to sort materials into recycling, composting, and garbage containers. -Darin Saul, University of Idaho Sustainability Center Director

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Campus Dining is also collaborating with the Palouse Research, Extension and Education Center (PREEC), to create the Food and Farm composting program. Food waste will be combined with paper towel waste from other campus locations, and added to PREEC animal carcasses, manure, and animal bedding at PREEC composting bays. The finished compost will be used as animal bedding, or applied to landscaped areas of campus as a soil amendment.

Future feedstock for Food and Farm composting will include all campus dining venues, catering operations, and events at the Kibbie Dome. In addition, a portion of used oil will be donated for conversion to biodiesel. The remaining oil will be donated to the University of Idaho Dairy for use as a food supplement, rather than being thrown away.

So join in with us, and help reduce waste on campus. For more information about the university’s sustainability efforts, visit the University of Idaho Sustainability Center website or contact them by email.

-Taken from article written by Jeannie Matheison