In Spring 2025, UGA Dining Services introduced Raccoon Eyes AI as a pilot program at Village Summit.

Raccoon Eyes is an innovative technology that enhances the dining experience and helps reduce food waste.

Using advanced AI and computer vision, the system analyzes plate selections to identify patterns in food waste, empowering UGA to make informed decisions for sustainability, monitor and reduce waste, and streamline processes.

Students can also play a role by being mindful and only taking what they will eat, helping to minimize leftovers.

Raccoon Eyes ensures efficiency, accuracy, and a more sustainable campus dining experience.

Implemented in 2024, the Sustainability Ambassador Program appoints and trains Dining Services staff members to help ensure proper recycling and composting procedures are followed in the dining commons.

Improper recycling and composting procedures can impede the effectiveness and efficiency of sustainability efforts, leading to clogged recycling machines or even entire shipments being sent to the landfill.

Our Sustainability Ambassadors prevent these hinderances by checking composting and recycling bins throughout the day, ensuring that cans are clean, recycling is properly sorted, and composting is free of gloves or other plastic.

Each semester, the Sustainability Ambassadors tour one of Athens-Clarke County’s waste facilities (e.g. the Recycling Facility, the landfill, the Center for Hard to Recycle Materials) to gain a broader understanding of waste management in Athens-Clarke County and beyond.

Dining Services, in partnership with the Facilities Management Division and the Office of Sustainability, has diverted food waste from the landfill since 2014. This food waste is pulped and transported to the Athens-Clarke County Commercial Composting Facility, where it is processed into a nutrient rich soil amendment.

• In January of 2020, the dining locations at the Tate Student Center began composting consumer food waste in partnership with the Office of Sustainability.
• In March of 2018, the dining locations at the Tate Student Center began composting pre-consumer food waste including fruit & vegetable scraps, grains, and coffee grounds.
• In April of 2014, Dining Services eliminated all non-compostable items from the dining commons, which allows 100% of food waste to be composted. This was done by switching from non-biodegradable products like individual condiment packets, tea bags with paper tags attached by metal staple, and plastic straws to more sustainable options like reusable bulk condiment stations, 100% silk tea bags, and biodegradable paper straws.

Dining Services has been a long-time campus advocate of environmental sustainability concepts, including recycling.

Some of our recycling initiatives include:

• Recycling cardboard, glass, plastic, and metal cans in all of our facilities
• Teaching new employees the procedures and value of recycling
• Send off all used cooking oil to be recycled
• Recycling our office supplies, including all inkjet and toner cartridges
• Purchasing office paper with a minimum of 30% recycled content
• Providing on-campus collection sites for recycling cardboard, newspapers, plastic, and aluminum

Dining Services also composts food waste from its dining commons and retail operations and has substantial reduction efforts.

Reducing food waste on campus is a top priority for Dining Services, in partnership with the UGA Office of Sustainability and UGA Facilities Management Division.

Dining Services has reduced its yearly water usage by 2.05 million gallons of water through conservation efforts. Dining Services also composts food waste from its dining commons and retail operations and has substantial recycling efforts.

In all of our facilities we:

• Purchase products with minimum packing (ex. pouched vs. canned products)
• Purchase energy-efficient replacement equipment and install timers on lighting
• Purchase office paper with a minimum of 30% recycled content
• Use of electric hand dryers in lieu of paper towels in public restrooms
• Have eliminated plastic to-go bags
• Have promoted refilling water bottles by installing “Hydration Stations” at our water fountains.

Residential

Our dining commons locations

• Use trash pulper systems to drastically reduce the volume of paper and food waste sent to local landfills, while dramatically reducing water usage in trash disposal systems
• We use reusable dishes, glassware, and flatware

Retail

All of our retail locations use eco-friendly disposable service ware.

Dining Services’ locations in Tate Student Center

• Use compostable straws and are 100% plastic-straw free (effective Fall 2019)
• Have replaced Styrofoam packaging with paper and compostable fiber containers (effective 2018)
• Have eliminated plastic carryout bags (effective 2018)
• Compost back-of-house and consumer food waste in partnership with the Office of Sustainability

The Water Bottle Reclamation Initiative works with campus and community partners to recondition reusable water bottles and keep them out of the landfill.

Campus partners donate abandoned water bottles to the Office of Sustainability from lost-and-found locations across campus. These water bottles are then sent to Dining Services where they are washed before being redistributed to partners like the UGA Swap Shop, UGA Auto Center, and community organizations like The Backpack Project.

This program saves resources through reuse and salvages items that would otherwise be landfilled.

Dining Services is also a major contributor to both the Food Bank of Northeast Georgia and Full Plate. These organizations ensure that our surplus food is distributed to human-service agencies in the Athens area. Dining Services was recognized with the 2003 Community Champion award for its support feeding people experiencing homelessness in the community.

Food Bank of Northeast Georgia

UGA Dining Services is able to donate unused ingredients and cans that cannot be used in campus locations to the Food Bank of Northeast Georgia. The food bank recovers donated and surplus food and distributes it to human-service agencies that operate emergency shelters, food pantries, after-school programs and soup kitchens in the Athens area.

Full Plate

For many years, UGA Dining Services has partnered with ACTION Inc.’s Full Plate program through food donations. UGA is able to donate prepared foods that have not been served. Full Plate distributes food to local charities that operate emergency shelters, food pantries, after-school programs and soup kitchens in the Athens area.