Sodexo Challenges Diners on College Campuses to Go Trayless and Go Green.

December 1, 2008 11:15 AM

Filed Under: Green College Ambassador Program

SOURCE: Sodexo, Inc.
Not using a tray saves water and energy; reduces food waste.

GAITHERSBURG, Md., April 21 /PRNewswire/ -- On Earth Day, students on 300 college campuses served by Sodexo will line up to get their meals in a new way -- without using a plastic tray. The move was introduced by Sodexo as part of the company's commitment to reduce negative impact on the environment; going trayless saves thousands of gallons of water each day and reduces electricity and chemical use.

"Campuses that have tossed the trays also report reduced food waste," said Tom Post, president of campus dining for Sodexo

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Sodexo is sharing the benefits of trayless dining with campuses in hopes of them joining a national trend. Many of its approximately 600 campuses are retiring their trays. So far, the program has been embraced by Georgia Tech, Colorado College, Tulane in New Orleans, Georgia State, Rowan University in N.J., and the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, with more than 150 campuses that have already opted out of using trays on a daily basis. So far, the environmental impact is calculated to be a savings of about 200 gallons of water a day per 1,000 meals served. Sodexo serves one million meals on campuses each day, which means the water-saving potential of this initiative is 200,000 gallons of water a day if all campuses agreed to go trayless.

"We strongly recommend trayless dining in all locations to reduce water and waste," said Post. "Trayless dining has so many unexpected benefits and it's easy to achieve."

Other benefits to trayless dining include:

Reducing electricity, water and chemical use because there are far fewer dishes and trays to wash, saving thousands of gallons of water every day and generating hundreds of dollars in detergent and electricity savings.
Cutting detergents, solid waste and grease that goes down the drain also improves our local community's water supply.

What are you comments on this program?

Posted by Blossom Lalehzari at December 1, 2008 11:15 AM

Comments

Joan email -

St. Michael's College outside of Burlington, VT is actively going green in a number of ways. In their dining hall, they no longer use food trays that need to be cleaned and washed. They are saving alot of water, and the environment is reaping all the benefits of trayless dining. They are using paper trays from recycled and biodegradable materials.