The Daily Campus

Issue date: 1/25/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Nick Hart Trays like these may soon be a thing of the past.

Environmental awareness and "going green" is becoming more important in our society and UConn is doing its part to help the environment.

During the month of February, Whitney Dining Hall will stop using trays at dinner to see if this will reduce water usage. UConn has suffered from water shortage problems in the past and this program is aimed at solving the problem. The dining hall will also be collecting and measuring the food waste produced by the dining hall.

The tray-free meals have been organized by a committee that is a collaboration between several departments, including Dining Services, the Office of Environmental Policy, CONNPirg and EcoHusky.

The program starts on Feb. 11 at Whitney, said Dan Britton from the Office of Environmental Policy at a committee meeting.

In the first week, the dining hall staff will collect and measure food waste.

During the second week, there will be educational materials like posters and stickers saying, "I went trayless at Whitney," according to Britton.

There will also be students on the committee available to speak with students about the tray-free initiative. Students will be able to fill out surveys and let the committee know what they think of the program. There will also be a bar graph measuring the water usage and waste production of the dining hall. The committee is also putting advertisements in the holders on the dining hall tables.

There will be no trays on Monday of the second week, but trays will be available the remainder of the week. On the third week, there will be no trays, only plates and utensils, said Britton.

Whitney staff will count the number of dishwasher racks that are used, and the number of card swipes will be measured to see how many students ate at Whitney, according to Britton.

"It is a program to reduce water usage," said Susan O'Keefe, the manager of Whitney Dining Hall and member of the committee.

They will measure how much "water and energy is used per cycle, and calculate how much water we're saving," said O'Keefe.

The dining hall is measuring the waste to see if there is a reduction in food waste when the dining hall goes tray-free. It may reduce the amount of food students take, because there is less to carry.

The committee also hopes they can measure energy and water production and translate it into carbon dioxide outputs and costs.

The three week program is a test run to see if Whitney can go tray-free, said Denise Beal, assistant director of Dining Services and a member of the committee.

The committee also hopes that the program can be implemented in other dining halls. "The goal is sustainability," Beal said.



Contact Lindsay Larsen at

Lindsay.Larsen@UConn.edu.

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