The University of Montreal says goodbye to single-use plastic
The University of Montreal will no longer offer single-use plastic containers as of February 6.
As of February 6, Food Services at the Université de Montréal (UdeM) will permanently remove single-use plastic packaging.
Paper coffee cups, utensils and cup lids bottles, plastic coffee stirrers and other disposable products will no longer be offered at the various points of service. The University encourages students to bring their own cup of coffee and to use the Cano service, a loan service for cups and reusable food containers.
The decision of the City of Montreal adopting a regulation requiring restaurants and food counters to eliminate single-use containers prompted the university to speed up the process. “I see it rather as luck, since the new by-law of the City of Montreal comes to support our efforts to move towards the objective zero waste”, considers the director of the hotel and catering of the establishment, Pascal Prouteau.
In addition, the management of residual materials is not aligned with technological advances in sustainable development, according to Mr. Prouteau, another reason that motivates the withdrawal of plastic. “Some of our compostable containers are made from cornmeal. In theory, that's great. The problem is that in Quebec, no factory is able to process these containers… So they go to the garbage cans, ”he concludes.
