A sign over drinking fountains in a building at Washington University School of Medicine caught my eye last recently.
ABOVE: At first glance a normal looking pair of drinking fountains at the Washington University School of Medicine.ABOVE: The sign encourages users to refill water bottles, but you probably know how difficult that can be at a drinking fountainABOVE: This fountain has an area to make filling bottlers easy. If only more had this feature.ABOVE: After getting a drink of water I went into the adjacent Barnes & Noble Cafe and ordered spinach & artichoke quiche for there. It was handed to me in a disposable plastic container and directed to the disposable plastic utensils.
I love the idea of encouraging the reuse of bottles, I do that at home for water to go. Meanwhile the cafe is wasting plastic on customers eating there. Maybe get the cafe a commercial dishwasher?
I’m pretty sure that Wash U offers recycling for the plastic utensils. The bigger question is where was the quiche created? At the B&N cafe? (Unlikely.) At a central commissary and reheated at the cafe? (More likely.) Given most people’s desire for proper sanitation, along with most vendors’ desire for consistent portion control, pre-packaging of some sort will more likely be the rule than the exception. Add in the logistics of properly washing and sanitizing plates and cutlery in a retail environment and recyclable (and recycled) plastic is likely the best way to go, since aluminum (much more recyclable) and microwaves don’t play well together . . .
JZ hit on a good portion of how the food chain works in his answer, but I’ll add some helpful information to what was offered. For clarity, I’m a manufacturer of commercial food service equipment, so I have a pretty good feel for what the industry is doing. The trend in commercial kitchens is toward freshness and quality of food, but that really just started in the last 5 years or so. As Steve pointed out; even this cafe located in the bookstore is baking these items (or it’s just a fancy warming drawer, depending on the setup), but consumers will see this more and more as this trend takes hold. The good part is that it’s better food, the bad is that it comes with higher cost of the food and more food wasted, so they will cut corners in other areas. However, for a food kiosk like the one a B&N, for them to add in a dish machine (including all the proper venting and utilities) and plates/silverware, even in the design phase would add at least 100 sf to the size of the cafe and add significant cost to the project that would likely keep it from being a profit center for the bookstore. This is space that is probably not available and cost that don’t make sense given the location. They would be better suited to just control their waste properly by offering recycling as JZ offered. Food Service is really evolving right now. It’s going away from the old systems of just cook it and they will eat it, to a heavy emphasis on food quality, waste control, energy control, and customer driven.
Agreed. And as a manager in this segment of food service, I can tell that you that there are basically 3 types of service ware: bio-degradeable made from corn starches and breaks down rapidly in the landfills and petroleum based service ware. The petroleum base is decreasing because of the rising price of oil, and then you have the permenants.
While I wont comment on the specific examples here, I will say that one of the biggest problems food operations have is countering the cheap and low-cost ‘garbage’ view. There are many, many more good operations than bad that do provide high-quality, fresh food at competitive pricing and served by good employees. It boils down to management. If you don’t like your foodservice, complain to the manager.
And yes, controlling waste is very important. It’s a balancing act. There is a lot going on behind the scenes that 99% of customers do not know anything about or care.
Yeah, I’ve noticed this peculiar disconnect everywhere. The most notable was at SLU Hospital. Everywhere around the building, one assumes that medical professionals are working to maintain or save the health of their patients. But you go into the cafeteria, and you will find some of the most vile and unhealthful “food” ever made. Fried this’n’that. Sandwiches of dubious provenance. Sugary drinks. And so on. Of course, it’s all supplied by a “food-service” conglomerate, so obviously the emphasis is on profit for them, and cheap and low-cost for SLU. It’s probably like this at every hospital, too. Hell, when I was in Barnes, they didn’t even have a decent vegetarian selection. They even brought me a “vegetable” soup with a frickin’ beef broth base. (WTF!!!!?). Weird.
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I’m pretty sure that Wash U offers recycling for the plastic utensils. The bigger question is where was the quiche created? At the B&N cafe? (Unlikely.) At a central commissary and reheated at the cafe? (More likely.) Given most people’s desire for proper sanitation, along with most vendors’ desire for consistent portion control, pre-packaging of some sort will more likely be the rule than the exception. Add in the logistics of properly washing and sanitizing plates and cutlery in a retail environment and recyclable (and recycled) plastic is likely the best way to go, since aluminum (much more recyclable) and microwaves don’t play well together . . .
I didn’t see any recycling in the cafe — I looked. I did see the commercial oven they use to bake items in the cafe.
JZ hit on a good portion of how the food chain works in his answer, but I’ll add some helpful information to what was offered. For clarity, I’m a manufacturer of commercial food service equipment, so I have a pretty good feel for what the industry is doing. The trend in commercial kitchens is toward freshness and quality of food, but that really just started in the last 5 years or so. As Steve pointed out; even this cafe located in the bookstore is baking these items (or it’s just a fancy warming drawer, depending on the setup), but consumers will see this more and more as this trend takes hold. The good part is that it’s better food, the bad is that it comes with higher cost of the food and more food wasted, so they will cut corners in other areas. However, for a food kiosk like the one a B&N, for them to add in a dish machine (including all the proper venting and utilities) and plates/silverware, even in the design phase would add at least 100 sf to the size of the cafe and add significant cost to the project that would likely keep it from being a profit center for the bookstore. This is space that is probably not available and cost that don’t make sense given the location. They would be better suited to just control their waste properly by offering recycling as JZ offered. Food Service is really evolving right now. It’s going away from the old systems of just cook it and they will eat it, to a heavy emphasis on food quality, waste control, energy control, and customer driven.
Agreed. And as a manager in this segment of food service, I can tell that you that there are basically 3 types of service ware: bio-degradeable made from corn starches and breaks down rapidly in the landfills and petroleum based service ware. The petroleum base is decreasing because of the rising price of oil, and then you have the permenants.
While I wont comment on the specific examples here, I will say that one of the biggest problems food operations have is countering the cheap and low-cost ‘garbage’ view. There are many, many more good operations than bad that do provide high-quality, fresh food at competitive pricing and served by good employees. It boils down to management. If you don’t like your foodservice, complain to the manager.
And yes, controlling waste is very important. It’s a balancing act. There is a lot going on behind the scenes that 99% of customers do not know anything about or care.
Yeah, I’ve noticed this peculiar disconnect everywhere. The most notable was at SLU Hospital. Everywhere around the building, one assumes that medical professionals are working to maintain or save the health of their patients. But you go into the cafeteria, and you will find some of the most vile and unhealthful “food” ever made. Fried this’n’that. Sandwiches of dubious provenance. Sugary drinks. And so on. Of course, it’s all supplied by a “food-service” conglomerate, so obviously the emphasis is on profit for them, and cheap and low-cost for SLU. It’s probably like this at every hospital, too. Hell, when I was in Barnes, they didn’t even have a decent vegetarian selection. They even brought me a “vegetable” soup with a frickin’ beef broth base. (WTF!!!!?). Weird.