Filed under: College, College Students, Saving the Planet, Students, University
In an effort to reduce waste and do their part to save the planet, college dining halls have begun to go trayless. Plates are still available (they’re not barbarians), as are eating utensils.
It turns out that the trayless policy has reduced water and energy use, and because the students can only gracefully carry so many plates and bowls in their arms, they’ve been wasting 30% less food due to the decrease in my-eyes-were-bigger-than-my-stomach syndrome.
The traditional using of the dining tray as a sled during Winter Term will be much reduced as well, about which the schools are stoked and the students are understandably pi**ed. Times change, people.
You’ll have to stick with surfing down the dorm hallway on bathmats (rubber side up, yarn side down) and baby powder. My dorm had carpeting, which sucked until we invented Flame Ball (it involves a fuzzy tennis ball, hairspray, lights off, and no one getting their deposit back).
Posted by Alexa Harrington
May I respectfully offer that this adds one more item to the list of “necessities” the well equipped (by parents) freshman must take off to college with them?
I seem to recall reading an article, that I cannot find the citation for, about a university discontinuing cafeteria trays (except in the faculty club) and selling them off to a salvage firm that promptly put them on sale at a local junk store – all college towns seem to have them? – where most of the students promptly bought one. I keep expecting some (republican) political science major to write his/her senior thesis on this as an exemplar of market dynamics.
Comment by Simple Country Physicist 09.23.09 @ 5:28 amthanks for the post.
Awesome to hear about the help to the environment with the doing away with trays!
Sorry to hear about the sledding though, and finally we didn’t use the tennis ball but used the ceiling..
And white paint at the end of the semester.
Are there many colleges participating in the trayless lunch?
@Bobby- Here’s the quote regarding trayless school numbers from the LA Times article:
“His group does not have a definitive list of trayless schools, but food service companies report that many are shedding the plastic trays. Aramark Higher Education estimates that 60% of the 600 campuses it serves are trayless, and Sodexo Inc., which works at a similar number of schools, says about 40% have switched.”
@SCP- Yep, I’m guessing that bringing your own damn tray is an option, and as long as it’s not being washed after every meal (water and power wastage) or leading to students carrying off more than they can eat (food wastage) it’s a grand idea.
Toning down the ruination of the planet is a totally worthwhile pain in the ass. Seattle is pretty good about offering curbside recycling and composting services, and that’s great for Earth and the future and all that. But sometimes when I’m straightening up the house in the evening, I’m tired and I get frustrated with the insane amount of garbage sorting I have to do. It’s very tempting to just be a bad Earthling and just chuck it all into the garbage can, damn the consequences. *sigh* But I don’t.
Take care,
Alexa
Comment by admin 09.24.09 @ 1:16 pmCould this help freshmen avoid the “Freshmen 15″ as well? I think I’d be pi**ed too because I’m clutsy and I’d be bound to cause some spillage. Then they’d have to use water to clean up the mess. You just can’t win.
Comment by Lynn M 09.28.09 @ 8:20 am