Sustainability

3 Cambro Products that Increase Sustainability

Cambro is committed to sustainability in three key areas: Processes, Partnerships and Products.

  • Processes The processes at each of our facilities work to reduce material waste and promote energy efficiency.
  • Partnerships Our partnerships with organizations like the National Sanitation Foundation and the Environmental Protection Agency, help us make products safer and more efficient.
  • Products Our products are designed to make kitchens more organized and less wasteful, while being manufactured under sustainable practices themselves.

If you’re looking to save waste, time and money, these Cambro products will do all three.

  1. Camracks®

For an event, a hotel could need as much as 5,000 glasses contained in about 2,000 glassware racks. When racks are designed with open walls, employees have to rewash all of the glasses to ensure they are clean and sanitized because critters, dust and dirty hands could have found their way inside.

The average commercial dishwasher uses about between .5 and 3 gallons per rack. That means rewashing your glasses costs you up to 6,000 extra gallons of water. Not only is this a waste of money, but it’s also a major waste of water and takes up valuable time your employees could spend doing something else.

Camracks are designed with a closed wall system to keep contaminants out during storage and transportation. Plus, Camracks can be personalized with hot stamping or Camrack Extender ID Clips to provide identification without having to expose glasses to possible contamination by opening its lid.

  1. Tumblers

Each year, the world uses 500 billion plastic cups. When they inevitably end up in a landfill, they break down into tiny toxic particles that contaminate soil and waterways.

Cambro tumblers are designed from durable plastic that resembles the look of delicate glass without the risk of breaking. If you’re offering plastic cups for water or cocktails, you’re literally throwing your money in the trash, and that trash is eventually polluting the environment. Cambro tumblers are available in a variety of styles and colors to fit the aesthetic of your business.

  1. Trays

During the coronavirus pandemic, disposable trays and containers became a popular way to serve students safely and easily. However, school foodservice directors quickly realized that this method was very expensive and extremely unfriendly to the environment. 

Bento Boxes

When bento boxes took off at Valders Area School District in Valders, Wis., Sabrina Bilski, Director of Nutrition Services, looked for a way to be more sustainable than the disposable containers they were currently using. According to Bilski, she used 100 containers five days a week, with each container ringing up at 30 cents. Every week, Bilski was spending $150 on containers and regularly contributing waste to local landfills.

“It’s a lot of money to buy that kind of stuff and you’re just throwing it out,” said Bilski. I just couldn’t sleep at night thinking about how many disposable to-go boxes we would have to use on a daily basis.”

Bilski switched to Cambro Meal Delivery Trays and saved more than $2,000 and 1,516 lbs. of waste over the course of the school year.

Separator Compartment Trays

Julia Scarborough, Director of Food Services at Blaine County School District, was spending $900 per month on disposable products for student meals. 

“One of the things I’m constantly looking for is a way for us to figure out how to stop using so much [disposable] plastic because we don’t have a recycling program here. Everything goes directly into our Earth,” said Scarborough.

After implementing Separator Compartment Trays at 6 schools, Scarborough saved about $1,400 a month and cut labor by 28 percent.  


Making an effort to pursue more sustainable practices can have a huge impact on your operation and the environment. Contact your local Cambro sales rep to learn more about how these Cambro products can affect your bottom line.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR: ADRIANA DESIDERIO IS THE DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER AT CAMBRO.

Categories: Sustainability

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