New reusable dining container use grows

To reduce waste in dining halls across the campus, Dining Services officials began offering students reusable containers last semester — and have seen the number of students using the containers surge since launching the initiative.

At the start of the program, officials said they saw a few hundred OZZI containers used each week, but last week, students used more than 1,300 containers in the North Campus Diner. On average, officials said, the number of containers in use has increased by about 200 per week since the start of the semester — a figure that exceeded their expectations.

"It's really exciting for us," Dining Services Sustainability Coordinator Allison Lilly said.

Dining Services kick-started the pilot shortly after Thanksgiving, and the program began at the start of this semester.

Students pay a $5 fee for the first container. After that, students return the containers to the OZZI machines and receive a token, enabling them to continue using the reusable containers.

While officials initially ordered 1,000 containers, the program's popularity prompted Dining Services to order about 1,000 more to add to the machines yesterday.

Since Dining Services uses about a million disposable containers per year, Lilly said she hopes to see the program continue growing to promote more sustainable dining — especially with more than 8,000 students on meal plans. For now, the number of dispensers and containers officials place in dining halls are determined by how often students choose to use them, Lilly said.

"The whole program is very new," she said. "[As] people start seeing about it, learning more about it, they become more interested in trying it out."

To reward students using the containers, Lilly said dining officials hope to allow students to return their token at the end of the semester so they do not have to worry about losing it over the summer.

Officials said they plan to conduct a study in the coming months to compare the number of disposable containers used before and after the program to see how successful the OZZI containers have been in reducing campus waste.

Although students have to pay to begin using the OZZI containers, freshman letters and sciences major Nusheen Majidi said they eventually end up costing students less, since disposable containers cost 25 cents each time they're purchased.

"Eventually it's cheaper, and that's a bonus of being green," she said.

Megan Beveridge, a freshman architecture major, said purchasing the containers helps her live more sustainably.

"I've always kind of been an environmentalist, so I just feel better about using them than the plastic ones," she said.

gray@umdbk.com