Penn Dining’s reusable to-go box program, Green2Go, has partnered with Reuzzi to track the boxes and make the pickup-and-return process more convenient.
Reuzzi is an app used to track takeout food containers. It has already been implemented by several university dining programs, including the University of California at Los Angeles, Stonehill College, and The College of Wooster.
According to Courtney Dombroski, Penn Residential and Hospitality Services’ director of strategic initiatives and planning, Penn Dining noticed a decline in Green2Go containers being returned to dining locations — an issue that she stated hindered the program’s operations. She also noted that several containers were found in the trash rather than being returned for reuse, undermining Green2Go’s goal of furthering Penn Dining’s sustainability efforts and reducing the use of single-use food containers since its introduction in 2013.
Dombroski added that Penn Dining sees the Reuzzi app as a potential solution for this issue, allowing students to track their containers and know when they need to return them.
“The Green2Go containers are convenient to use and save over 180,000 single-use containers from being placed into landfill every year,” Dombroski wrote. “Penn Dining will be able to track exactly how many containers are used every day, semester, or year. The app’s dashboard will also show how many disposable containers were averted and how much CO2 emissions prevented.”
Students will now scan a QR code through the Reuzzi app when receiving a Green2Go container. The app will then notify them when to return their containers to the dining halls. At the collection station, students will need to scan an additional QR code to confirm the return of the container.
Reuzzi will prevent students from checking out more than three containers until they have been returned, and — if they fail to do so — students may be charged a replacement fine, according to Dombroski.
“It’s been fun to watch campuses be enthusiastic and creative with their to-go tracking—from clamshell containers to mugs, cups, and sporks,” Reuzzi wrote to the The Daily Pennsylvanian. “Reuzzi sees a 98% return rate on average for reusable to-go items.”
According to Reuzzi, their mission is “to reduce single-use disposables and ensure that reusables are reused hundreds if not thousands of times to combat climate change, keep costs down, and protect oceans and wildlife.”
Wharton sophomore and Class of 2027 President Steven Li told the DP that he recently used the Reuzzi app to get a Green2Go box.
“In the past, the Green2Go boxes were not held accountable, and I think the implementation we have is going to improve students’ use of the boxes and the sustainability of the product,” Li said. “I’m looking forward to more students using this so we don’t have to go back to the paper boxes.”
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