The University of Colorado Boulder has launched USEFULL’s tech-enabled, plastic-free reusable takeout program, becoming the first campus in Colorado to embrace plastic-free dining.
CU Boulder Campus Dining & Hospitality, working with the university’s Environmental Center, introduced USEFULL at Alferd Packer Grill in the University Memorial Center and SEEC Café in the Sustainability, Energy and Environment Community building, and are making reuse part of the everyday dining experience for students, faculty, staff and visitors. Containers are free to use when returned within two days, and users can return them at any USEFULL return station regardless of where the container was checked out.
The implementation brings plastic-free reuse to a major university dining operation that serves more than three million meals each year. It also demonstrates how reuse can work in fast-moving campus dining environments where students increasingly expect meals to be portable and convenient.
“CU Boulder shows what it looks like when a large university moves reuse from a sustainability initiative into everyday dining operations,” said Alison Cove, founder and CEO of USEFULL. “Students don’t need to choose between convenience and reducing waste. The goal is to make reuse work naturally with the way people already eat on campus.”
The CU Boulder implementation also marks the debut of USEFULL’s new checkout and return stations, which are built right into the existing dining experience that makes secure container checkouts easy. Students and other campus users check out containers and return them to a USEFULL return station within two days. Containers are then professionally washed and sanitized by Campus Dining and returned to circulation. USEFULL’s technology tracks individual containers, manages returns and provides the accountability needed to operate reuse at scale.
“Partnering with the Environmental Center to bring USEFULL to campus is an exciting step for Campus Dining & Hospitality,” said Matt Bratton, director of Campus Dining and Hospitality at CU Boulder. “This program reinforces our commitment to making collaborative operational decisions that support CU’s sustainability and waste reduction goals. It also provides a unique opportunity to raise awareness and educate the campus community on how sustained behavioral change can make a big collective impact.”
CU Boulder has a long-standing focus on sustainable dining and waste reduction. Its dining sustainability initiatives include composting, food donation, local and organic sourcing and other waste-reduction efforts, and its Village Center Dining won the Green Restaurant Association’s 2025 Greenest University Restaurant Award.
The USEFULL launch builds on that work by addressing waste at the source. Instead of continually purchasing and discarding single-use foodware, participating locations keep durable containers in circulation. USEFULL combines stainless-steel containers with tracking, return infrastructure, reporting and support to help universities make reuse practical within daily dining operations.
“Campuses already understand that reducing single-use waste matters,” Cove said. “The challenge now is making reuse convenient enough for students and operationally sound enough for dining teams to scale. CU Boulder is taking that next step.”