Students will have one less thing to grab when checking out at UW-Madison dining halls next week, as University Housing cash registers will no longer print out receipts for each transaction, according to a UW-Madison release.
University Housing, the Wisconsin Union and the UW-Madison Office of Sustainability are joining forces to reduce the amount of paper used across campus.
"So many people didn't want their receipts. They would ditch them around the cash register, or they would fly off their tray," Julie Luke, associate director of Dining and Culinary Services for University Housing, said in the release.
UW-Madison physics professor Duncan Carlsmith worked with undergraduate Rachel Feil of the Office of Sustainability, who developed the idea of receipt reduction for her sustainability internship and a class project.
Feil collaborated with former Associated Students of Madison Sustainability Committee Chair Kyla Kaplan between the unions and dining facilities to gauge student interest in decreasing paper use.
Kaplan said that when Housing cuts receipt printing, paper expenses will be cut by nearly 90 percent, saving about $20,000 to $30,000 per year.