Even before yesterday’s experiment, some students mocked the 10 days of counting-down posters, which seemed a rather ominous campaign and an excessive use of paper. When the day finally arrived, students were greeted with empty tray racks. Though diners certainly saved a half-second or so by not leaning over to pick up a tray, this benefit was soon cancelled out by the long lines and crowded serving area. Without the use of a tray, many students were forced to make multiple trips between their table and their food, adding additional bodies to the already-crowded dining hall. Students rushing to finish a meal before class were forced to make different diet decisions to expedite their dining experience and fit an entire meal, drink, napkin and silverware in their two hands.
With the shuttling of multiple dishes, spills abounded throughout Valentine, whether from cups or the poorly-designed soup bowls. Such messes created another problem for employees who would later have to clean up the scattered food pieces, puddles and shattered dishes. The additional cleaning required by such spills also introduced another source of water use.
Valentine’s second goal for trayless day was to reduce the amount of food waste. Students, they believed, would be limited to eating the food they could fit in their two hands, a belief somewhat disproved by the high incidence of return trips. Though the results of the wasted poundage will not be public until later this week, we doubt that this single potentially positive outcome will be enough to merit the hardships imposed on employees and the inconvenience suffered by students. Val’s compost efforts have been very useful in putting food waste to good use and making students more aware of their leftovers, and other such methods are possible.
Though such inconveniences were obvious to students, there were other less obvious downfalls. Extra employees worked yesterday, forgoing their day off to supervise students’ every move and to fill the newly-created position of tray placer. This seemingly ironic practice of putting a tray on the conveyor belt where students placed their empty plates, bowls and cups appeared to negate the “trayless” initiative, though it was unclear whether these trays were washed. For trays not to be necessary, a new system would have to be introduced to place dishes in stacks without the aid of a tray, whether on disposal shelves throughout the dining hall or near the exit where the conveyor belt currently resides.
While a permanent transition to trayless Val would certainly involve improvements to yesterday’s chaos, the way Val is set up currently makes it difficult to actually realize the full potential of “going trayless”. Most schools that do not use trays have a much more open floor plan so diners don’t get tunelled through the same narrow spaces with their hands balancing their plates, glasses etc.
The exact numbers on the amount of water and food waste that Val was able to cut down are not available yet, but, unles there are significant savings, the extra-cost of additional staff, and inconvenience to both the Val staff and students are not worth a permanent change. Factor in a more congested serving area and the benefits of eliminating trays from Val don’t seem practical, at least in the short term. A more efficient system, one that involves things like installing drink machines in several of the Val wings, and using bins that are located throughout the dining area instead of the conveyor belt, is needed if trayless Val becomes permanent.