Auburn University
Auburn University
Learn how Auburn University and dining partner Aramark improved student meal quality and increased portion sizes by switching from an analog-token reusables program to ReusePass, Topanga’s track-and-trace solution.
Key Results
In the first six months of ReusePass, Auburn University experienced:
98% average return rate
$14K+ savings on single-use packaging costs
31 average uses per reusable container
A 2-day cycle from one container use to the next (students return containers within 1 day)
“When you’re budgeting 60 cents for each to-go box, for each person, and now you don’t have to? You can invest those savings back into the quality of the food you serve and provide a better product. At the end of the day, that’s our goal: we get to serve a bigger piece of chicken, a bigger burger, a better quality french fry at our ReusePass location because of the savings.” – Jessica Vines, Aramark District Marketing Manager
Introduction
Auburn University is a public university with 34K+ enrolled students (undergraduate and graduate), making them the second-largest school in Alabama. Located in an agricultural region, Auburn administrators and dining partner Aramark pride themselves on delivering a top-tier dining experience to students; students care deeply about the quality of their food, where it comes from, and how leftovers are disposed. This means offerings like house-made sauces (we’re particularly jealous of the honey mustard made from campus beehive honey), lettuce grown on-site via vertical gardens built in retired shipping containers, rice sourced from women and minority-owned farms across the southeast, and on-campus composting. Auburn chose Topanga’s ReusePass to right the wrongs of their previous analog-token reusables program and achieve a student take-out experience as high-quality as the food they serve.
Problem
In 2018, Auburn rolled out an analog-token reusables program (utilizing carabiners) in two residential dining locations with devastating outcomes. Even though students paid $5 to join the program (a container protection fee), dining operators would walk outside dining halls and see trash bins piled high with the reusables. Losing so many containers greatly increased program operating costs for Auburn, not to mention was very disheartening for the dining team.
Despite these challenges, they were committed to finding a better reusables partner. Auburn is a foam-free campus, and the dining team saw that single-use compostable containers for Grubhub mobile orders would nearly disintegrate after a long stay (awaiting student retrieval) in their Hacto lockers. Reusable containers still felt like the best way to maintain mobile order freshness.
Solution
Auburn found the ReusePass program’s ease of use - for both diners and operators - especially compelling. After COVID, when university administrators and IT were evaluating priority technological innovations to introduce on campus, ReusePass was a clear winner to help them remain cutting-edge and offer students the highest quality reuse experience. They felt that ReusePass had been designed to actually deliver the promised cost and waste savings with minimal operational disruption. The full integration between ReusePass and Grubhub, plus the ReusePass ScanApp technology (enabling dining operators to scan containers in and out with their phones) was a perfect fit.
Program Design and Setup
Leading up to the ReusePass launch, Auburn’s dining team met virtually with Topanga Customer Success to design the ideal reuse program and address any operational concerns. After the 2018 analog-token experience, Auburn wanted to build a strong reuse foundation by first launching in one dining location that didn’t have the massive daily volume (~4K meal swipes a day) of their bigger venues. They replenished their reusables inventory with G.E.T containers, but were still able to use (and re-tag) any remaining containers from their previous program thanks to the container-agnostic design of ReusePass. The Auburn team was concerned that, based on 2018, students would opt for the seemingly easier single-use containers if given the choice. To ensure program utilization and achieve the desired take-out order quality, they decided reuse would be mandatory when paired with Grubhub mobile ordering and Hacto lockers.
Program Launch
Auburn smoothly launched with ReusePass in late August ‘24 at one residential dining location as the mandatory process for Grubhub mobile orders, stored in Hacto lockers. Operators scan the student's ReusePass QR code, printed directly on the Grubhub order chit, to check out a reusable container for a student meal and pop it into the Hacto locker. Students then use a numerical code, provided via Grubhub, to pick up their meal in the reusable container from the Hatco locker - a similar fulfillment flow for all users, but now zero waste!
"You already have all of these new things happening [in August], so whose attention is going to be on the ReusePass launch? We very quickly realized that nobody’s attention needed to be on ReusePass, because the program is built very well." – Jessica Vines, Aramark District Marketing Manager
There is one dedicated container drop-off location, and if students fail to return their container within 3 days, they are charged a $5 late-fee. To ensure timely drop-off, they receive SMS reminders from ReusePass and keep track of container due dates on the ReusePass web app (no separate download required).
For launch, the dining team utilized Topanga’s turn-key Marketing signage to raise student awareness of the new offering and educate around reuse. This was one less thing that required the Auburn dining team’s attention, allowing them to focus instead on program operations.
Results
Since the ReusePass launch in August ‘24, Auburn has been thrilled to finally see the reuse results they always wanted. They have a 98% average container return rate and have saved $14K+ by cutting single-use packaging costs. On average, each reusable container has 31 uses, the most-used container has gone on 145 loops (the check-out to check-in cycle), and Auburn’s top user has reused over 85 times. Students also have displayed model behavior - they return containers within one day, on average, and the same container is ready for the check-out one day later. Before ReusePass, a takeout order could have required multiple single-use containers, so the per-unit cost of 60 cents quickly added up. Auburn can now use those additional funds to deepen their commitment to using local, high-quality ingredients and increasing portion sizes for students. Jessica also appreciates all of the tangible impact statistics; the significance of keeping 31K single-use containers (equivalent to 20K gallons of water and ~21K pounds of CO2) from the landfill isn’t lost on the Auburn dining team.
Program Expansion
Auburn’s approach to ReusePass growth has been very intentional; their worst-case scenario was seeing 2018’s trials and tribulations repeated, so they considered how to ensure ReusePass success - and regain operational confidence - at every turn. This thoughtfulness was warranted: universities of their size are constantly contending with changes to back-of-house technology (upgrades to the latest & greatest) and have to deliver meals to students on a massive scale, so they operate within a very small margin of error. Auburn now has a team fully confident in the massive impact that the right reuse program can deliver, and program expansion is top of mind. They’re determining how to add container drop-off locations to meet student demand and will be rolling out ReusePass with back-of-house RFID scanning in two new residential dining locations. We’re overjoyed that Auburn got their groove back with ReusePass - and that together, we proved reuse can be a key component of their commitment to delivering the highest quality meals possible.
We'd be happy to introduce you if you're interested in setting up a call to learn more about Auburn’s experience!