Gators are taking "going green" literally with on-campus dining this year.
Students have been able to use the reusable, green to-go boxes at Gator Corner Dining Center, Broward Dining and the Reitz Union's Home Zone since January 2009, according to the Office of Sustainability website.
The dining halls started to charge students 40 cents each for disposable boxes in August, and more students are checking out reusable boxes this semester.
Felita Sallet, 22, the lead cashier at Gator Corner, estimated that at least 1,000 to-go boxes are checked out every week at Gator Corner.
"We didn't expect it to catch on like it did," she said. "We had to order more boxes to keep up with the demand."
She said she didn't know how many were checked out before the charge was implemented on disposable boxes.
Students check out a box if they want to take food to go, and as long as they don't keep any boxes, they get their $4 deposit back at the end of the semester, according to Gator Dining Services.
The reusable boxes prevent about 14,000 containers from being thrown out, according to a Gator Dining handout.
Hanah Eastwood, a 19-year-old linguistics freshman, has used the green boxes about 20 times.
"Anybody who has a meal plan should definitely sign up," she said.
Chas Hackmann, a 19-year-old mechanical engineering sophomore, uses a green to-go box every day at Gator Dining.
