Spring Break
Trayless Tuesdays aim to aid planet, not save money
Erica Hope
Issue date: 4/24/09 Section: Ed-Op
Juggling books, plastic cups, ceramic plates and a hot soup bowl from the salad bar to your seat is certainly inconvenient and annoying. I feel your pain.
With pink finger tips from heated bowls and stained t-shirts for the ungraceful eaters - Trayless Tuesdays have become a despised day in the Drexel dining hall. But I urge you to take a minute to think about this: is a soup stain or an inconvenient walk too large an obstacle when trying to save the Earth? Trees are falling, ice is melting and water is evaporating. The Earth hurts and it needs our helping, trayless, hands.
First and foremost, Trayless Tuesdays were instituted in observance of Earth month; appropriate and understandable. By not washing our trays, Andrew Manfredo, Drexel Dining marketing manager, reports that we conserve 0.3 gallons of water per tray. That was 964 gallons of water just on the first Trayless Tuesday alone. Besides conserving an important natural resource, going trayless also cuts back on the chemicals released into the environment, i.e. detergent, and it conserves electricity.
Well then, is Trayless Tuesday just an opportunity to save money on water and electric bills? Probably not.
"While Drexel Dining Services may appear to be masquerading Trayless as a green initiative in an effort to pocket the change, savings are not going to line the pockets of the business," Manfredo said. "It is going into the business to boost customer satisfaction."
True to his word, Manfredo brainstormed the idea of giving students a catered dinner at the end of the year with the money saved from food waste; money going directly back to the students.
As a plate scraper every Tuesday, I see how Trayless Tuesdays highlight the bowl full of egg noodles that is wasted in the trash. Some students apologize for their half filled plates, but many are just more conscientious of their portions. Every Monday and Tuesday the food waste is measured and compared by our team of volunteers. By scraping and weighing, I found that food waste is 50 percent less on average when residents choose to go trayless.
With pink finger tips from heated bowls and stained t-shirts for the ungraceful eaters - Trayless Tuesdays have become a despised day in the Drexel dining hall. But I urge you to take a minute to think about this: is a soup stain or an inconvenient walk too large an obstacle when trying to save the Earth? Trees are falling, ice is melting and water is evaporating. The Earth hurts and it needs our helping, trayless, hands.
First and foremost, Trayless Tuesdays were instituted in observance of Earth month; appropriate and understandable. By not washing our trays, Andrew Manfredo, Drexel Dining marketing manager, reports that we conserve 0.3 gallons of water per tray. That was 964 gallons of water just on the first Trayless Tuesday alone. Besides conserving an important natural resource, going trayless also cuts back on the chemicals released into the environment, i.e. detergent, and it conserves electricity.
Well then, is Trayless Tuesday just an opportunity to save money on water and electric bills? Probably not.
"While Drexel Dining Services may appear to be masquerading Trayless as a green initiative in an effort to pocket the change, savings are not going to line the pockets of the business," Manfredo said. "It is going into the business to boost customer satisfaction."
True to his word, Manfredo brainstormed the idea of giving students a catered dinner at the end of the year with the money saved from food waste; money going directly back to the students.
As a plate scraper every Tuesday, I see how Trayless Tuesdays highlight the bowl full of egg noodles that is wasted in the trash. Some students apologize for their half filled plates, but many are just more conscientious of their portions. Every Monday and Tuesday the food waste is measured and compared by our team of volunteers. By scraping and weighing, I found that food waste is 50 percent less on average when residents choose to go trayless.
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