<p>TIME: “This fall thousands of students will have to navigate their university dining halls without one crucial feature: the cafeteria tray.”</p>
<p>“…cafeteria trays are disappearing, enabling universities and food-service companies to reduce food waste, lower energy costs and make college campuses more environmentally sustainable. The reasoning goes like this: when students are allowed to use trays, they tend to roam around the cafeteria grabbing food with abandon until space on the tray runs out.”</p>
<p>When I was at CMU in occasionally snowy (and always hilly) Pittsburgh, a popular sport was “traying,” i.e., finding a snowy slope and riding a tray down it. Cafeteria trays actually make very bad sleds, but availability (immediate) and price (free if you could sneak it out of the cafeteria) made them attractive on the first snowy day.</p>
<p>They haven’t gotten rid of them at my school, but everything we order is a la carte, meaning that if you get a four-course meal, you will be paying much more than someone with a salad and water.</p>
<p>We got rid of trays (bad call) at our all you can eat dinning hall. However we go through thousands of Styrofoam containers at every other eatery on campus. Not very eco friendly.</p>
<p>At my son’s school, where there have been no trays since last January, they are now weighing the cost savings of no trays (in reduced food waste and clean up) against the costs of broken plates, spilled cups, and one kids upcoming law suit, since he fell in someone’s spilled chop suey (which may or may not have happened had the spiller not been carrying books, two plates of food, two drinks and small plate of desserts, while talking on the phone.</p>
<p>I hate the no-tray idea. If the schools want to start serving family style and one sits down to eat and pass the food, great. Then they can hire some students to clean up.</p>
<p>I think it’s a good idea. I mean a lot of times students grab food to satisfy their eyes until they realize they can’t finish it all (at least for me) and it ends up going to waste. Multiply that by 20,000 students and it can really help save wasted food. Yeah it might be a hassle but it’ll help you gain less weight in the long run and not throw away something you can’t finish :P</p>
<p>They did away with trays at my S college. I haven’t heard any complaints by him so I guess kids figure out a way to deal with it. His school did away with styrofoam and plastic food containers years ago and replaced them with biodegradable containers made out of corn.</p>
<p>Never thought about the fact that trays may be encouraging students to eat more. Well, trays also make it more convenient for students, and having to carry food without them could pose to be a hassle. A legitimate debate.</p>
<p>If this is really about “waste”, will the cost of the “unlimited” meal plan be reduced? … At 2200 a semester i would assume the cost of waste is already built into the equation. I doubt the cost of the plans will go down in relation to the “savings”</p>
<p>I work at a university that started this policy this year. Although I like it in theory . . . saves food and energy . . . in practice, I hate it. I eat at our cafeterias most days and food is all over the place because instead of falling off plates onto trays, it now falls on counters, floors, the tables . . . it’s not only disgusting but dangerous.</p>