Usdan Marketplace switched to paper plates and plastic utensils beginning on the night of Wednesday, Oct. 2, through Tuesday, Oct. 8, due to a malfunction in the dining hall’s commercial dishwasher. The dishwasher was repaired on Oct. 8 after the required parts were delivered.
Soon after the commercial dishwasher broke, new parts were ordered, and Usdan temporarily shifted to all disposable items. The parts took several days to arrive and finally came on the morning of Monday, Oct. 7, along with workers to install them. After crews worked for nearly 12 hours on Oct. 7, the dishwasher was fully repaired and returned to being used at around 6 p.m., after which Usdan Marketplace began reintroducing the normal dishware and utensils.
Although some dishwashing machines were still in operation while the commercial dishwasher was out of commission, they were reserved for dishes and utensils used for cooking and serving. Paper plates used in conjunction with plastic cups and utensils replaced the normal plastic plates and cups and metal utensils. Instead of the usual routine of returning all dishes and utensils to the dishwashing line, diners threw out the disposable items in large trash cans placed at the front of both the Mink and the West Wing dining halls.
“The commercial dishwasher broke down, the part needed was on backorder, so we [had] no choice but to use paper products until the part [came] in,” Usdan Director of Auxiliary Services Michelle Myers-Brown wrote in an email to The Argus.
Some students reported that the disposable dishware did not hold up well when used for some of the food options. Initially, because there were no paper bowls provided to students for soups and oatmeal, nor signage indicating where to get the appropriate dishware, plastic cups left at the ice cream station were used as a solution for carrying hot foods.
“When I went to the salad bar to get oatmeal at Usdan brunch, I poured the oatmeal in the plastic cups that they had out because they did not have bowls out,” Francesca Edesess-Hardy ’27 said. “The plastic cup melted because the oatmeal was so hot and completely crumbled and oatmeal spilled all over my plate.”
Workers at Usdan also saw a difference in operation due to the breakdown.
“It was a little bit chaotic because our dishwasher broke, we needed to order a new part,” Dennesha Rolle ’26, a Bon Appétit student worker, said. “All the dishes were dirty that day; since the [commercial dishwasher] had broken down, we had to shift to the single-use plates. We probably went through a lot of single-use stuff for those days.”
Typically, students can compost all disposable dishware offered at Usdan, from plastic spoons at the ice cream bar to paper plates at the Kosher station. However, as student environmental activists have noted, compost bins were not provided for the paper and plastic dishware used by students while the commercial dishwasher was broken.
“All those paper plates and disposal cups you used for a few days are compostable, but they went straight to the landfill with zero effort to compost them,” Eco-Facilitator Nell Brayton ’27 wrote in a message to The Argus. “The composting system is a fairly smooth one here at Wesleyan (most of the compost is sent to a biofuel center), yet large trash bins were put out for the disposal dishwasher.”
Students reacted to the environmental issues on social media such as Fizz, an application for college and high school campuses where users can anonymously post and report issues. One user posted a photo of their plastic utensil from Usdan with the label “Do not compost.” The student captioned the image “Sustainability my ass-cheeks.”
While some would argue that the reduced water consumption from the lack of dishwashing benefits the environment, environmental activists on campus noted that the lack of composting of the disposable dishware negates the positive effects.
“The dishwasher breaking may seem to have been a win for sustainability on campus— suddenly, the Usdan water consumption was reduced significantly,” Brayton wrote. “But it was an environmental disaster and a sad day for the sustainability office.”
Anabel Goode contributed to reporting and can be reached at agoode@wesleyan.edu.
Miles Craven contributed to reporting and can be reached at mcraven@wesleyan.edu.
Spencer Landers can be reached at sklanders@wesleyan.edu.
Raiza Goel can be reached at rgoel@wesleyan.edu.
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