Steffi Puerto, EcoNews Intern
In 2013, Humboldt State University – now Cal Poly Humboldt – integrated OZZI boxes into its food dining system. This transition was made to reduce single-use plastic on campus and promote more sustainable options for students, residents and faculty who dine inside and take their food to go.
Planet OZZI is the company responsible for producing OZZI boxes. It is a third-party nationwide FDA-approved green sustainability program that essentially eliminates the traditional single-use to-go box by offering reusable and recyclable containers. These containers are bright transparent green boxes with three compartments for food. They have a wax coating so they are easy to rinse, wash and reuse. Planet OZZI has roughly produced around 25 million reusable containers in the United States. They are also 100% recycable products.
Auxilia Clint, the sustainability lead for dining at Cal Poly Humboldt, said that OZZI boxes are essential to the institution’s culture of sustainability. OZZI boxes help the university eliminate its carbon footprint in the surrounding environment. When asked how much single-use plastic waste was reduced by using OZZI boxes, Clint answered that they hadn’t collected data on waste reduction.
Before the transition to OZZI boxes, Cal Poly Humboldt was using paper and foam plates as to-go options for residents of the campus. Clint shares that although the paper products they used were recyclable they were not sustainable. There aren’t local equipment or resources available to process recyclable material.
“We are striving to be fully sustainable here on campus because we don’t have local commercial composting facilities, and because of that, we end up having to transport it. Which at the end of the day ends up in the landfill,” Clint said.
Although Humboldt dining is not collecting data on the reduction of single-use plastics on campus, research has shown that plastic waste is a growing concern to our planet. According to the Assembly of Natural Resources Committee, the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery estimates 4.5 million tons of plastic waste entered landfills in 2018. Plastics are also a growing portion of overall waste disposal – increasing from 9.6 percent in 2008 to 11.5 percent in 2018.
There are approximately 2,500 residents on campus this year, and upon arriving on campus they are given one free OZZI coin for dining. This coin can be used at any dining facility on campus which include The J, The Depot, and The Campus Marketplace. Students can exchange the gold coin for a fresh new box. When residents are done with the OZZI box they can return it to any dining location and get their coin back.
If you don’t live on campus, you can purchase the coin for $8.00 at the housing cashier desk or at any dining service location. OZZI boxes are recyclable. If students break their boxes they can recycle them at any recycling center or bin, and then can use their coin to retrieve a new OZZI box container. If residents lose their coin, they must purchase a new one in order to continue to use OZZI services.
OZZI boxes are available to anyone who dines on campus, although there isn’t commercial use for restaurants outside of the area. Clint adds you can contact Planet OZZI to recommend that your institution adopt the OZZI box trend.