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Laura Weiss’s GO Box program allows Portlanders generate less waste

Laura Weiss GO Box

We often see folks enjoying their favorite delicacies at food carts; some, however, prefer taking eatables home in to-go boxes. The latter practice, in the Oregon City alone, involves the use of 60,000 disposable containers a month, which ultimately go to the landfill. With her intent to suggest a solution the problem, Laura Weiss, a Portlander, founded GO Box which offers reusable containers to food cart customers for a $12 annual fee. What customers need to do is leave those boxes at a drop site, receive their token and use it to get another GO Box when they eat out the next time.

With five public drop sites, 50 participating vendors and more than 1,000 subscribers, the program has been a tremendous hit since its launch in July 2011. Moreover, a corporate program allows businesses to have a drop box in their building so that the employees may avail the benefit. Just to ensure perfect hygiene, Weiss picks up dirty containers from public drop sites and then, sanitizes and cleans them herself. Weiss plans to expand her program beyond Portland in future.

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