The quest to be a greener campus comes with costs, most lately involving silverware.

Upon returning from break, students found that Dining Services had replaced the old style of plasticware with a new compostable type.

However, this new silverware is leaving students with empty pockets. Whenever eating in at one of UD's dining halls, customers using plasticware instead of metal silverware will now be charged 10 cents per piece up to a maximum of 25 cents.

"The old style plasticware was less expensive, but students would come by and grab a handful," said Kathy Browning, associate director of budget and administration for Dining Services. "We needed to start limiting the cutlery once we switched to the more expensive, compostable products."

Browning stressed that as long as a student is taking their meal to go, they can use still the plasticware without any extra charge, other than the existing 25 cent take-out fee.

"The price is not in addition to the 25 cent take-out fee," she said. "If you get a bowl of soup in a container to go and want to grab a plastic spoon, you're still only getting charged a quarter."

Some students are upset about the charge while others don't see it as a problem.

"It's not really a big deal to me; it's just 10 cents," said freshman Timothy Henry. "When I eat in I always use the metal silverware anyway."

But not all students are taking it so lightly.

"I just think it's a way for them to make more money off of us," said freshman Justin Jennewine.

The extra change on silverware goes into the account that Dining Services uses to pay for the disposables, Browning said.

"We are just asking customers to pay a portion; we are covering the rest," she said.

In the future, the cost of this environment friendly cutlery may not be a problem.

"As more and more businesses start purchasing these compostables, the price will go down," she said.