CDS focuses on eliminating waste in dining halls

Options are being discussed to cut waste, including trayless dining.

By Megan Pearl

Published Sept. 15, 2009

MU is continuing the campaign for a less wasteful culture within dining halls with a program started last year called Can the Waste.

"We take uneaten food from trays, like apples, whole sandwiches and cookies, and build a display of the food that wasn't eaten, but thrown away," Campus Dining Services Director Julaine Kiehn said. "We want to create a visual for our customers to remind them that they can eat what they'd like, but should eat what they take."

The Can the Waste campaign was established last year, and will take off again this year during the second week of October. The program aims to have the customers of the all-you-can-eat dining halls question whether they will actually eat the food that they pick up.

"It wasn't exactly revolutionary on terms of impact," Missouri Students Association President Jordan Paul said. "They had the option of doing nothing, so it was nice to do, but they could have done more."

In an attempt to cut down on waste, some college campuses around the nation have taken the trays out of dining halls, cutting back on a considerable amount of wasted food.

A USA Today article, "More college cafeterias dump food trays," reported in 2008 that New York University food waste was cut from 4.03 ounces per tray to less than 2.37 ounces, and the University of North Carolina reported it saved thousands of gallons of water a month by not having to wash trays.

"Last semester, Student Affairs and the Residence Halls Association tried to see if there was any support for trayless and it came back pretty negative, and that was the end of the discussion at that point in time," Paul said.

Ways to discourage the amount of waste coming from the dining halls are still being discussed.

The goal of the Can the Waste program this year is to bring the levels of waste per student down to two ounces or less. To figure out the numbers, CDS employees take the waste at the end of every day and weigh and record it. Then at the end of the month, they will add all of the weights together, and divide by number of people to get an average weight of food wasted per person.

"I don't waste a lot," freshman Amanda Harrison said. "I try not to, but the trays do tend to make me get more food. It makes your eyes bigger than your stomach."

Although many agree they might not waste as much food, some are worried about the other possible consequences of taking away trays.

"A lot of the dining halls are designed for trays," senior Maria Holt said. "It would be a lot more money to redesign the tray collection system."

The profitability of redesigning the waste collection system is debatable.

"Less waste would mean buying less food up front, less time preparing food and less on disposal," Paul said. "It would cost less."

The discussion about campus waste is not yet over. RHA has created a new committee for the sole purpose of meeting with CDS and addressing the waste concerns.

"It's really the will of the residents for us," RHA Speaker of Congress Blake Lawrence said. "I'm not ruling out any options, but it all comes down to what the residents want."