As the semester accelerates towards its final weeks, Parkhurst is dishing out carrots, peas and pleas for students to return greenboxes and the McKinley’s Food Court reusable dishes. For several weeks, Parkhurst reverted to using single-use cardboard trays, paper bowls and plastic cups in McKinley’s, and it has not been uncommon for students to be greeted with a hand-written “No greenboxes” sign taped to the McKinley’s register.

“No one’s upset,” said Parkhurst Director of Operations Randi Hovel. “If they (students) could just bring them back — there’s bus tubs outside of McKinley’s, there’s bus tubs in McKinley’s — we would just be so grateful to be able to have our dishes back and be able to continue to offer to serve on all those and all of the greenboxes.”

Last fall, McKinley’s began serving food in gray melamine dishes in an effort to reduce food waste and costs. Parkhurst reported a 99.35% return rate for the greenbox program at the time — a significant spike up from the 2023-2024 school year’s 4% return rate. But this fall, the tables have turned yet again. Allegheny’s dining provider has seen a severe shortage of its greenboxes and dishware as items go missing from McKinley’s, prompting Parkhurst to revert to serving food in paper boats in the food court, as well as introduce dishware and greenbox collection bins within residential halls.

“This is definitely something that’s hitting hard this year,” Hovel said. “Last year, we had a lot of success with the greenboxes and the program, and this year, it just seems like they’re flying off the shelves.”

The Allegheny Student Government reported last week that since Parkhurst heightened its messaging about dish returns over the last few weeks, it has only seen a 5% return rate.

“We don’t have exact numbers on how many exact plates are missing,” Hovel said.

“I do know we put bins in dorm rooms and we did receive some greenboxes back, but we did not receive hardly any plates, cups, coffee cups or the little side bowls.”

Parkhurst staff described a range of difficulties that the shortage has posed to Parkhurst’s operations.

“It puts pressure on our dishwashers because they have to be cranking out the (green)boxes at a much faster rate,” Hovel said. “So it changes the flow of what they do, and it just puts an added pressure on the DRA (Dining Room Attendant) who has to stock the greenboxes. So I would say overall, it does affect more people than just the students. It affects the staff.”

Yvonne Longstreth, a cashier in McKinley’s, expressed discomfort with the amount of waste that the compostable containers create.

“It stresses me out because there’s so much waste,” Longstreth said. “Because you are getting a container at this station, at that station, at this station, and you have all these dishes, where if we had the (reusable) plates and stuff, you would just have a plate and a bowl and it would be reused again. So we just have so much waste, and that’s a lot of wasted money.”

The reason for such a sharp divergence from last year’s high rate of return has yet to be identified.

“This is very puzzling to me,” Hovel said. “We had such a great return last year with the greenboxes that — just overnight or over the summer — it seems that the program is not really working how it did last year, and that could be a multitude of reasons that we’re just not really sure why they’re not coming back.”

ASG is not sure how to combat the problem, according to ASG Co-Director of Student Affairs Iris Styers, ’26, who is also a member of the Dining Committee.

“I guess we’re kind of at the point where we don’t know what to do,” Styers said. “Because the most likely thing is that they are just in people’s dorm rooms and there’s no way to just go and take them back.”

Styers expressed confusion as to why students are not returning the dishware.

“I also think it’s kind of silly that people are stealing the dishes,” she said. “Because those plates are so tiny and those bowls are so tiny, what are you even doing with them? It’s not like the nice Brooks dishes.”

However, Styers also shared that anyone returning dishes will be met with a non-judgmental attitude.

“No one’s going to question you,” she said. “We just want the dishes back.”