College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor said it is the first school in the country to completely eliminate disposable plastic in all retail dining operations.
The school said disposable items have been replaced with stainless steel to-go containers, tumblers and sporks.
Senior Linnea Goh, who led the effort said that to ensure the reusable items are returned, said the college uses an app checkout system, that lets diners scan out and return items with a QR code.
"It really is a scalable process, and I would really love to see other schools take it on, because imagine the impact that we could have if we all were implementing programs like this, it would keep so much disposable plastics out of the ocean," she said.
Goh estimates the system will keep 50,000 pieces of plastic out of the waste stream every year.
Goh led the effort as part of her senior project on a sustainability action plan for the college.
"And on the first day, a lot of people had a lot of questions about what was happening," she said. "They all started downloading the app. And then over the next couple days, I started to see increases in the amount of people who were taking food to go or who were taking food in the containers to go."
COA is first on the top ten list of "Zero Waste Campuses" rate by the Post Landfill Action Network. Other schools on the list include UC Berkeley, Williams College and the University of Connecticut.
