Sustainability
Reduce
Trayless dining at Bridgeway Stations has helped reduce waste, conserve water, and save energy. Dining Services encourages students to take what they may need with the opportunity to return for seconds. Let your server know if you would like a sample first.
As we continually make changes to our menus each semester, Dining Services tries to minimize the range of ingredients used across dishes to maximize cross-utilization of ingredients.
Dining Services practices batch-cooking, or prepares foods in small batches as needed, and repurposes excess food. This avoids overproduction, reducing kitchen food waste before it even leaves the kitchen.
Dining Services filters and recycles cooking oil. Dining Services also uses reusable oil spray bottles and purchases oil in bulk for refilling.
Location managers perform at least weekly inventory counts to reduce over purchasing. At retail locations, Dining Services uses electronic point of sale data to adjust production and avoid overproduction.
Dining Services, in conjunction with food safety standards, uses the FIFO (first in, first out) method when storing food to avoid unnecessary spoilage as well as “planograms” for our storage rooms, coolers, and freezers, keeping spaces organized and foods where they are supposed to be and not forgotten.
Straws in our main locations are available upon request for dietary and physical accommodations.
Dining Services uses paper bags at our convenience stores across campus upon request.
Reusable Container Program
Pioneers choose green and help reduce waste at UW-Platteville one container at a time!
Dining Services has offered reusable containers at main dining locations since 2019. Students who purchase a meal plan receive an OZZI (pronounced oh-zee) token during New Student Experience or when they receive their Campus Card. All faculty, staff, and other dining patrons are encouraged to buy into the program with a one-time charge of $4 at the cash register.
OZZI to-go containers are available at every station at Pioneer Crossing and the cash register at Bridgeway Stations.
Follow these six easy steps:
- Ask for your meal in a reusable container
- Hand token or cash value to cashier
- Eat anywhere
- Bring used container to OZZI machine
- Follow instructions on machine
- Keep token for next time
You may use Campus Cash, credit, or debit to pay for your container. Ask for your meal in a reusable container and pay for your food and the $4 fee at the cash register. Return your container to the OZZI machine located in Pioneer Crossing or to the cashier at Bridgeway Stations and receive a token. Bring the token to pay for a reusable container next time.
Dining Services is not responsible for forgotten, lost, or stolen tokens or containers. You can buy into the program again for $4 at the cash register.
Additional information
The containers are meant to be a part of the program life cycle; it’s important to return them and not keep them. Dining Services will wash your container; all containers need to be returned to the OZZI machine or the cashier at Bridgeway Stations for safety and sanitation purposes. Preferably, containers should be returned the day after use with no food particles, or at least rinsed if returned after more than one day. If you are graduating or leaving the university, please return your token to the Dining and Campus Card Office.
Food Recovery
Dining Services houses and manages Pioneer Provisions, our on-campus food pantry run by the student organization Pioneer Pantry. Small meals are created with overproduced food, which is packaged into compostable containers by Dining Services staff, frozen and donated to the pantry. Non-perishable foods from our c-stores that are outdated but still safe to eat are also donated to the pantry.
Recycling
UW-Platteville partners with Faherty Incorporated for single stream recycling.
Campus-Grown Food
Dining Services partners with Pioneer Produce, a student-run hydroponic lettuce lab. You can find campus-grown romaine lettuce on Dining Services lines and salad bars.
