When was the last time in modern history that a college student felt any sense of guilt for snatching utensils from a dining hall?

Like, maybe never.

So now that the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor has decided to ban plastic in the student dining halls, it has a fresh problem to cope with—policing the theft of the new stainless steel takeout containers.

As the original TV princess of darkness, Saturday Night Live’s Roseanne Roseannadanna famously proclaimed, “It just goes to show ya, if it’s not one thing, it’s another.”

But not to worry, says the student environmentalist who was behind the successful anti-plastic campaign.

The steel containers will each have a QR code etched into them.

Students who get takeout from the dining halls will now have to have their food containers scanned as they leave the dining halls.

Senior Linnea Goh, who led the ban-plastic effort, said that to ensure the reusable items are returned, the college uses an app checkout system that requires diners to scan and return items with a QR code.

“I would really love to see other schools take it on, because imagine the impact that we could have if we all were implementing programs like this,” Goh said. “It would keep so much disposable plastics out of the ocean.”

Goh estimated the system will keep 50,000 pieces of plastic out of the waste stream every year.

She led the effort as part of her senior project on a sustainability action plan for the college.

The school announced this week it is the first campus in the country to use reusable stainless steel forks and spoons to replace disposable cutlery and the first to fully eliminate disposable plastic food containers in all its dining halls.

The school’s “break free from plastic pledge” is behind the ban.

Apparently, dining hall theft is a major and expensive problem in campuses nationwide.

At Princeton University, for instance, a report just released by the student paper underscores the scope of the problem.

In the past two years, the Princeton has spent over $73,000 replacing plates, bowls, and silverware in dining halls, according to data obtained by The Daily Princetonian.

University data shows that one dining hall alone has spent nearly $44,000 in the past two years replacing 4,440 plates and 2,240 bowls, the paper reported.

The remaining $29,000 comes from replacing 20,400 forks, 5,460 knives, 5,580 soup spoons, and 2,520 teaspoons.

The plastic-reduction efforts are unlikely to impact ocean plastic levels globally, mostly because the United States accounts for a minuscule fraction of plastic waste entering the oceans.

More than 80 percent of ocean plastic originates in Asia, with the Philippines, India, Malaysia, China, and Indonesia being the top polluters.