Spring Break
Trayless Experiment Successful
Kate King
Issue date: 3/6/08 Section: News
Students may have to make a second trip to grab their soda, but eliminating trays in the dining hall significantly reduces food waste, according to a recently completed study on waste reduction at UConn.
The three-week-long experiment, conducted by Dining Services and the Office of Environmental Policy (OEP), was designed to see if taking away trays during dinner reduces food waste, according to Ben Plourde, a 6th-semester biological sciences and physics major who is working on the experiment through OEP.
The experiment ended Sunday and the results show that trayless dinners reduced the total amount of waste produced by diners by 19 percent and the average amount of waste produced per person by 30 percent, according to data provided by Susan O'Keefe, Whitney area manager.
The first week of the experiment, which was Feb. 11 through Feb. 17, served as the control segment of the study with trays available as usual during dinner, Plourde said. During that week, dining services and OEP measured the amount of waste produced each day except Wednesday, when a power outage at Towers dining hall sent more students to Whitney than usual.
Whitney dining hall produced an average of 3.2 ounces of food waste per person each night, according to Plourde. The total amount of waste for the six days amounted to 290.5 pounds.
The second week of the experiment was devoted to educating dining hall patrons about the experiment and food waste, Plourde said. On Monday, trays were not available in the dining hall in order to make students aware of the ongoing experiment. For the rest of the week, trays were available as was material such as posters and table tents educating students about food waste reduction.
The trays were taken away during dinner for the entire third week of the experiment and researchers measured the total amount of waste produced every night with the exception of Feb. 27. On this day, there was a special event menu that featured ribs, which produced bone waste that would have skewed the study's results, O'Keefe said. The total waste produced over the six days was 236 pounds, which was about 19 percent lower than the control week. The average waste produced per person about 2.3 pounds, or about 30 percent lower than the first week of the experiment.
The three-week-long experiment, conducted by Dining Services and the Office of Environmental Policy (OEP), was designed to see if taking away trays during dinner reduces food waste, according to Ben Plourde, a 6th-semester biological sciences and physics major who is working on the experiment through OEP.
The experiment ended Sunday and the results show that trayless dinners reduced the total amount of waste produced by diners by 19 percent and the average amount of waste produced per person by 30 percent, according to data provided by Susan O'Keefe, Whitney area manager.
The first week of the experiment, which was Feb. 11 through Feb. 17, served as the control segment of the study with trays available as usual during dinner, Plourde said. During that week, dining services and OEP measured the amount of waste produced each day except Wednesday, when a power outage at Towers dining hall sent more students to Whitney than usual.
Whitney dining hall produced an average of 3.2 ounces of food waste per person each night, according to Plourde. The total amount of waste for the six days amounted to 290.5 pounds.
The second week of the experiment was devoted to educating dining hall patrons about the experiment and food waste, Plourde said. On Monday, trays were not available in the dining hall in order to make students aware of the ongoing experiment. For the rest of the week, trays were available as was material such as posters and table tents educating students about food waste reduction.
The trays were taken away during dinner for the entire third week of the experiment and researchers measured the total amount of waste produced every night with the exception of Feb. 27. On this day, there was a special event menu that featured ribs, which produced bone waste that would have skewed the study's results, O'Keefe said. The total waste produced over the six days was 236 pounds, which was about 19 percent lower than the control week. The average waste produced per person about 2.3 pounds, or about 30 percent lower than the first week of the experiment.
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