Not every dining hall on campus is the same. Some are larger. Some come with express lines and others with markets. At the Pavilion at Dobbs the difference is not what’s on the plate but the plate itself.

Dobbs is the only dining hall on campus that uses plastic plates instead of reusable ceramic ones.

“We first started using plasticware (plastic silverware) when the remodeling was done in the ‘90s,” Dobbs Manager Trisha Grant said.

When the remodeling was done, the original idea was that students would be able to pay for their meal a la carte style and then take the food home with them, Grant said. Because of this original planning, the washing room at Dobbs is of inadequate size to wash ceramic plates.

The early plans for how dining would work at Dobbs changed quickly, but the washing facilities were already in place.

“Within less than a year of the renovation, students indicated that they preferred a more traditional service for all three meals,” MU spokesperson Christian Basi said.

In order to handle the amount of student traffic Dobbs currently receives, the washing facilities would have to be much larger.

“Our washing room is the size of the average person’s bathroom,” Grant said. “To wash plates we would need a room four to five times bigger.”

Grant said there are no future plans to enlarge the washing room.

“We’ve done several surveys in the past of students, and they typically viewed plastic as being more sanitary,” Grant said. “Sometimes when you have a real plate it might still have small food particles on it.”

MU students seem to have mixed opinions on the use of plastic plates, if they have an opinion at all.

“If I got a plate that had somehow not been cleaned, I’d lose my appetite pretty fast,” freshman Emily Durfey said.

Sustain Mizzou member Mallory Schillinger said throwing away plastic plates causes a major impact on the environment and is extremely wasteful.

“It would be way better to use regular plates and just wash them," Schillinger said.

For the past few weeks, Dobbs stopped issuing metal silverware and has resorted to plasticware. Grant said the reason for this has been frequent malfunctions with the washing machines present at Dobbs for washing normal silverware.

“They have been crashing on and off, but this last week the entire motor broke down,” Grant said last week.

The machines have since been repaired, and metal silverware is back on the tables.

Basi said the machines are not prone to breaking and have been reliable in the past. There are other reasons to hurry to fix the machines as well.

“Officials with Campus Dining Services are constantly exploring ways to improve efficiency and sustainability for their operations,” Basi said.

For some students, all that matters is what’s on the plate.

“I don’t mind what I’m eating off of or using to eat,” Durfey said. “When I’m hungry I just want my food.”