Special pizza box receptacles prevent cramming and poorly separated recycling

It’s been a week since special receptacles were placed in the University Library and the Polak building. They mean you no longer have to stuff your empty pizza boxes into the small waste bins.

It was a University Library employee, Ineke van der Kramer, who came up with the idea. She regularly sees students eating pizza while they are studying in the library, and she noticed that the empty pizza boxes didn’t fit in the waste bins. People end up cramming them in or piling them up, and there’s no room left for other waste.

Grease and food residue

“When students are busy studying for their exams, they sometimes order food, and that can often include pizza,” explains Van der Kramer. “I saw such pizza box receptacles in the University Library in Nijmegen, and I thought they would be an excellent solution to all the empty pizza boxes on our campus. They are also a great way of keeping recycling separate. Pizza boxes don’t belong in the paper bin at all because of all the grease and food residue left in them.”

The pizza box receptacles are in the University Library and the Polak building, because this is where most students study and eat pizzas. You’ll find one on each floor. Van de Kramer says that if they prove successful, they will be placed in other buildings too.

‘It can make a difference’

IBCoM students Aniela Jewtuch and Emma Zadro believe the pizza box receptacles are a very good idea. Emma: “To be honest, I haven’t seen the new bins yet, but I think they are a nifty idea, especially as they make it easier to keep recycling separate.”

Aniela herself has occasionally ordered meals while studying on campus. “It is a small idea, but it can make a big difference. I think it’s great that the university thinks about this kind of thing and that it is trying to tackle environmental problems step by step.”