Brock Hospitality Services is, quite literally, going green.

A new program aimed at diverting waste and making the food services at Brock more environmentally friendly launched Monday.

Through the new Green 2 Go program, anyone purchasing food from Guernsey Market, The Hungry Badger in Walker Complex or either the DeCew or Lowenberger residence dining halls will have the option of using a re-usable plastic container.

Initially, customers will have the option of having food servers put their food into one of the green 6”x9” containers. When they go to a cashier to pay, they’ll be charged an extra $5 fee for the container, which can then be taken anywhere by the customer. When they’re finished with it, the container can be returned dirty to any of the four participating dining areas, where they’ll receive a Green-2-Go card, which can be handed to a food server to get a new container.

“In the past, we couldn’t do this because people had to clean the containers themselves,” said Iain Glass, Director of Hospitality Services. “Now, we can put these containers into our industrial dishwashers to be cleaned an sanitized.”

The containers seal tightly so they won’t spill, and they keep food warm longer than a typical take-out container.

Glass said they can be washed about 800 times before needing to be recycled and replaced with a new one.

For now, only one type of container is being offered, but a screw-top soup container is also being developed and will be added if the program takes off.

For more information on Brock’s sustainability initiatives or the Green 2 Go program, visit brocku.ca/hospitality-services