Monash University – case study

Background

Monash University has developed a Towards Zero Waste strategy that uses circular economy principles. To achieve its waste targets and initiate a waste-free dining experience, Monash applied for a Sustainability Victoria Circular Economy Reuse Pilots Fund grant.

In October 2022 Monash was awarded $85,800 to run its Ditch Disposables – Reusable Dining Program pilot at its Clayton campus. The program aimed to provide reusable plates, bowls and cutlery to reduce waste generated by single-use plastic items. The pilot was launched during the first week of the semester in February 2023 and ran until the end of April.

The program

Leading up to the single-use plastic ban implemented across Victoria on 1 February 2023, Monash University’s sustainability team engaged campus retailers and held a series of face-to-face workshops. They discussed waste management issues and strategies to make the campus more sustainable.

Retailers interested in the program were invited to participate and were provided with reusable melamine plates, bowls and stainless-steel cutlery. They were encouraged to serve food to customers using reusable items as the default option.

For this project, 3 retailers were followed specifically to better understand the community’s behaviour change and to collect data. Monash University also installed collection stations around the food court so customers could return the reusable items. Cleaning staff then took these to the central dishwashers where they were cleaned and redistributed to retailers.

The process

Monash University worked with Recycle Smart Consulting to conduct waste audits of bins around the food court before the program launch and one month later. The audits captured the volume of particular single-use packaging items being sent to landfill and commingled recycling bins at the food court.

The use of different categories of disposable food packaging and their quantities were identified, which acted as benchmarks for the amount of waste that was saved at the end of the pilot.

The campus sustainability team worked with the campus facilities team to install a commercial dishwasher. Then they closely collaborated with retailers to understand and work through their concerns to ensure a smooth transition to reusables.

The sustainability team also worked with the design and communications teams to create posters and other promotional materials that explained to the university's community how the reusable dining program worked. The team identified relevant audiences such as student groups and, staff among others and the details of the program were shared via email, social media and signage. All the collection stations had signage illustrating how the program works and provided scrape bins to collect organic waste.

The sustainability team engaged student sustainability groups and other student associations, such as Monash Student Association (MSA) and Monash Association of Sustainability (MAS), to help promote the program and gather feedback.

The university worked with volunteers, student associations and retailers by providing them talking points and communication materials to get the word out and encourage uptake.

During orientation week, the sustainability team promoted the Reusable Dining program and spoke to diners about the reusable option as they queued for food. The team surveyed participants each week for behavioural insights, to understand what might prompt them to stop using disposable packaging.

The dishwashing service was operated by a team of 10 students on casual staff contracts. They were responsible for collecting dirty reusable plates and cutlery from the scrape stations, washing, sanitising, and drying the reusables at the dishwashing hubs and returning them to retailers. They also collected data on the reusable items washed.

Challenges

Most food packaging needs to go into the general waste because it has been contaminated by food. During the audit, the Monash University team observed a considerable amount of contamination in mixed recycling, particularly with disposable items that can’t be recycled. The survey results showed that many people were confused about various waste streams and the different types of plastic in food packaging.

The survey results also showed that many people were opting to get takeaway containers because they didn’t know that reusables were available.

The impact

In the 9-week pilot period between 27 February and 28 April, Monash University washed over 22,000 pieces of reusable plates and cutlery. This figure indicates the number of single-use disposable packaging and cutlery that has been diverted from landfill.

Food containers made up 13.7% of the landfill stream volumes of material before the pilot, and after the pilot 13.2%, an improvement of 0.54%.

During the reuse pilot the number of reusables washed were:

• 9,500 plates
• 6,200 forks
• 580 spoons
• 530 knives

Based on the data from survey results and waste audits, Monash University now plans to expand this project.

The pilot launched with 3 participating retailers, and by the end had a total of 5.

Next steps

While the pilot period for the Sustainability Victoria grant ended on 28 April 2023, Monash University will extend the program until November 2023. This will allow it to gather further data to support the ongoing viability of a permanent Reusable Dining Program at Clayton campus. The next stage will hopefully be to extend the program to other Monash University campuses at Caulfield, Parkville, and Peninsula.

Monash is also considering increasing the number of reusable options by including coffee cups, takeaway containers, and reusable options for smoothies and bubble teas.