What’s the first thing you do when you walk into a cafeteria? You automatically walk over to a stack of trays and pick one up, right? That’s not the case in many college cafeterias across the country that have decided to go trayless to save money, help the environment, and help curb food waste.

 

I first started reading about the trayless issue from Jonathan Bloom on his Wasted Food blog. He has written several posts on the topic - so many in fact that he even has a Trayless tab at the top of this blog. He’s been following the statistics on traylessness and the various institutions – mainly colleges – that are going trayless.

 

Yesterday The New York Times weighed in on the subject of going trayless in a post Without Cafeteria Trays, Colleges Find Savings.

 

So how does going trayless work some sort of financial and environmental magic? By forgoing trays here’s what typically happens.

 

 

 

 

 

That’s quite an impact going trayless can have, don’t you think?

 

Image: Pathfinder Linden