In today's New York Times on trays,
But while the environmental benefits are real, going trayless is not a panacea. At Skidmore, the all-you-can-eat format and multiple food stations, featuring vegetarian, Italian and classic comfort foods, encourage students to forage, taking a bit of this and a little of that. But this system also leads to congestion as diners return to the lines for seconds (or fourths).“That’s one of the disadvantages,” said Sam Pope, a junior from Worcester, Mass., referring to an absence of trays. “You have to keep getting up and getting more food. It increases dining hall time because there’s so much traffic.”
That's funny. It's not like I haven't made this argument before. Here's what I wrote, in part, on March 1, with emphasis.
On the second and final paragraphs, I'm glad to see that the elimination of trays won't be considered until at least the fall, but I see little evidence that eliminating trays would reduce waste. More likely, it would just increase students' time in the cafeteria as they had to wait through numerous lines, meaning you'd have less turnover at the tables in the cafeteria, meaning you'd have more crowding.
In terms of anecdotal evidence I've noticed that this is exactly what happens at Pitzer College where lines, even during non-peak times, can go on and on. But environmentalists don't care about the value of your time and so they'll impose any costs they can on you.
3 comments:
One of the main reasons for not using trays is not only to reduce the amount of food wasted but also to reduce the amount of water and energy wasted in washing the trays. You may argue that not having trays just leads people to use more plates, but many people when they get up to get seconds use a new plate anyway, regardless of having a tray, or eat enough food that they need two plates to begin with. Eliminating trays is in part to focus on elimnating the waste of water and energy that goes into cleaning the trays.
One of the main reasons for not using trays is not only to reduce the amount of food wasted but also to reduce the amount of water and energy wasted in washing the trays. You may argue that not having trays just leads people to use more plates, but many people when they get up to get seconds use a new plate anyway, regardless of having a tray, or eat enough food that they had two plates to begin with. Eliminating trays is in part to focus on elimnating the waste of water and energy that goes into cleaning the trays.
I find this funny because I doubt that the people writing all this stupidity, ever worked in a restaurant/dining hall. Let me tell it like this, cuz I have- the amount of food that will have to get washed off the floor, sucked out of carpets, the lost and broken plates, glasses and flatware will far surpass the cost both financially and environmentally of that of using trays. Trays are smart. That's why they were thought up in the first place. Don't the victims of prolonged academia have anything more intelligent to spend their time on. Seriously!
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