College cafeterias: ‘Got trays?’
September 21, 2009 by Carin FordPosted in: Going Green, In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views, Student Life
A growing trend among college cafeterias may be an inconvenience to students — but it’s helping schools save big bucks. Trayless dining now can be found in colleges coast to coast. According to Aramark Higher Education, 60% of the 600 schools it serves have eliminated trays. Sodexo says 40% of its approximately 600 schools also have made the change.
Here are the savings colleges are reporting:
- University of California-Santa Cruz has saved $100,000 since going trayless last year.
- San Diego State — which switched two years ago — has reduced its food costs by $65,000.
- In general, schools with all-you-can-eat plans are reporting up to 30% in decreased food waste.
Since students at these schools are unable to pile food onto their trays, they need to make a few trips to get as much as they want — which has caused some grumbling.
In fact, Northern Michigan University scrapped its plan to go trayless when students complained it was too inconvenient.
There are also some students who consider this a politically correct trend — but not one that actually is having an environmental impact. Is water really being saved when there are more plates — and tables — to be cleaned?
What do you think? Let us know in the comments section below.
Tags: Northern Michigan University, San Diego State, University of California-Santa Cruz
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September 24th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
In general, trayless dining has been accepted on our campus this semester, but with grumbling more from faculty and staff than from students. Our growing problem is the necessity to clean dining hall carpets more frequently. Any suggestions?
February 5th, 2010 at 11:54 am
Trayless dining has been in place here at Saint Leo for a couple of years. Food waste is significantly reduced, not mention energy costs saved by not have to wash trays.
February 8th, 2010 at 10:20 am
We removed trays a two years ago, but students stopped using them four or five years ago. Only freshmen used them, and they only used them the first week.
February 8th, 2010 at 11:27 am
My school has gone back and forth with trayless dining, but it seems to be back for now. The reasoning for trayless dining here was a bit different from what was talked about in the article. Students were walking off with trays and never returning them. Worse yet, living in a fairly snowy climate, students were stealing trays to go “tray-surfing” on some of the campus’s big hills in winter. This often led to broken trays and trays being discarded in dumpsters or left wedged into snowy hills. The university became sick of the cost of having to replace the trays so they removed them. Complaints ensued, largely from those students and faculty who felt they were being punished for the actions of the immature minority. So trays were reinstated, although in a much smaller quantity. I also agree with Mickey, most students don’t use the trays. It seems that perhaps the best thing to do would be to keep a stack on hand in case anyone asks for one, but to largely discontinue their use publicly.
February 8th, 2010 at 12:33 pm
We fall into the group as one of the schools Aramark has decided make trayless. Grumbling ensued from some faculty/staff and some students, however this minority could not change the trend. In my opinion, this switch was done rather covertly, being implemented over the summer with no input from the students with a “green” spin put on it. In the fall students started removing trays from various fast food restaurants close to campus and tried to use them in the cafeterias on campus. Had this been put to a vote or even done in an open manner, I don’t think it would have passed. Similar savings as mentioned in the article were gained, however the cost of meal plans still increased and not at a rate lower than previous years either.
February 8th, 2010 at 1:29 pm
Like Kristie, I attended a school in a snowy climate (this was in the early to mid-1990s) and tray sledding was a popular pastime. The way my school handled it was by eliminating the plastic trays and introducing recycled pressboard trays (totally unsuited for sledding). This is probably not a green enough solution in today’s climate, however.
The university where I now work eliminated trays for a time, but now they have returned – probably in no small part due to the elimination of the faculty dining room. That, and the elimination of trays ended up leading to increased demand for plastic clamshell take-out containers, so while the cafeteria may have been allegedly “greener” in that there were no trays to wash there was apparently a marked increase in plastic in the trash.
February 8th, 2010 at 8:54 pm
Seems simple to me that trays could be rented out for a $1 or $2 deposit when students take their lunch. I know they may be on a prepaid meal plan, but that does not necessarily include trays. Whoever returns the undamaged tray gets a token for another clean one. The cost of paying cash needy student(s) employee(s) to run the tray return concession should be much less than replacing the trays, and the assurance of clean trays prevents the unwanted spread of disease. Thus, some student(s) benefit from the needed income, the faculty and other “mature” users of trays benefit (see Kristie’s comments above), and the University benefits by saving thousands on trays. Perhaps the snowboard, sled, and flying sauce manufacturers and local merchants would benefit, too, in snowy climates.
February 9th, 2010 at 10:04 am
Our school went trayless three years ago and it was received well by all constituents. The few complaints were well worth the savings on food waste, savings from not washing 600 trays per meal, savings from the cost of replacing trays and the more important emphasis on taking smaller quantities for health reasons. I think our community adapted well because of their commitment to personal as well as environmental sustainability.