The Colby Echo

Issue date: 4/30/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Tom Bollier

To tray or not to tray, that is the question. Or at least that is the question students at the College have struggled with this past week. Sparked by the disappearance of trays for Earth Week, students have engaged in discussion and debate and to that purpose utilized e-mail lists, the Digest of Civil Discourse and personal conversation. Questions which have found their place in the deliberations include the methodology and validity of the food waste study, the importance of free choice and the role the College should play in collectively diminishing its environmental footprint.

A History of Traylessness

So how did the trayless days come about? According to Director of Dining Services Varun Avasthi, trays were first removed from the dining halls several years ago "in an effort to support Earth Day and Earth Week activities." Dining Services "worked with students to look at the food waste, and about the same time we started composting food on campus which is now going on close to five years." Avasthi cited Dining Services as composting upward of 90 tons of food waste in a single academic year. Trayless days, he went on to explain, have been shown to reduce food waste significantly.

Science of Traylessness

There have been several studies examining food waste and the impact that trayless days have on the amount of food waste produced in the dining halls. The initial study conducted by Katie Unsworth '10 measured food left on trays which is then separated in pre- and post- consumer waste buckets. This study demonstrated that trayless days provided a reduction of roughly two-thirds in food waste. The total weight of wasted food was then divided by the number of people who ate in the dining hall.

Subsequently, Dining Services conducted its own study during the first trayless week this year. According to Assistant Director of Dining Services Joe Klaus, the week was initiated by dining services. Dining Services regularly keeps a record of the food waste that trucks collect from each dining hall, and the waste collected during the week without trays demonstrated a reduction of 30 to 40 percent. Klaus hypothesized that the disparity between Unsworth's study (which indicated a 66 percent reduction) and Dining Services' study may, in part, be accounted for by the fact that they did not measure waste directly from the trays. Instead, their measurements included food that remained at the end of the meal but could not be reused. Klaus emphasized, however, that a 30 percent reduction of food waste is significant.

Continued...

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