In an effort to increase sustainability at the University, all trays will be removed from the Usdan Marketplace beginning next semester. The proposal for “traylessness,” spearheaded by students in the WSA Dining Committee, has worked to reduce waste at other colleges across the country. The University’s peers, including Middlebury, Williams, and Skidmore, have all gone trayless.
“Naturally, Bon Appétit, a company that prides itself on its sustainable practices, responded well to an idea that would drastically reduce waste,” said Anne Rosenthal, the EON representative to the Dining Committee, and an initial proponent of the idea.
Aramark, the University’s previous dining service provider, studied the removal of trays over the course of 186,00 meals at 25 colleges and universities, and found that traylessness reduced food waste by 25 to 30 percent.
“What Bon Appétit found throughout the country is that going trayless reduces production and waste of food,” said Michael Strumpf, the Residential District Manager of Bon Appétit. “We’re not trying to make anyone go hungry. Money is not the issue either.”
Strumpf recognizes the difficulty of getting food during the lunch hour, but expects a change in the set up of the dish collector next fall to help ease the shift to no trays.
“We are looking for a solution in how to return dishes,” said Bernice Laille, Marketing Director of Bon Appétit. “We’ll see some changes next semester. We understand that time is the issue at lunch.”
Some students have expressed initial resentment to the initiative.
“I’m not happy about it because I don’t feel like it was something everyone signed on for,” said James Hounsell ’11. “They didn’t ask the students and we are the customers so we should have a say.”
Rosenthal said the Dining Committee expected some opposition to the plan and started planning an early educational campaign to combat student frustration.
“Everyone working on this knows that a lot of students won’t be thrilled with the changes, but so many other schools have already gone trayless and seen the savings,” Rosenthal said. “I’m sure some students at all those schools were frustrated at first, too, but they got used to it. It’s totally a question of habit.”
Other students agreed that there is a need to overcome inconvenience for the sake of sustainability.
“It’s going to be annoying but I’ll deal with it,” said Ian Pearson ’10. “It’s an inconvenience but it makes sense. Most inconveniences lead to positive change.”