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Forbesians forgo trays in experimental dinner
Published: Wednesday, March 25th, 2009
Correction appended
Students eating at the Forbes dining hall last night experimented with trayless dining, a system that the environmental group Greening Princeton says could save both energy and water. In conjunction with Dining Services, the college decided to forego ...
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I wouldn't trust the survey. Everyone I talk to hates the idea, and the measure was unanimously voted down in the Whitman College Council Meeting.
When you have a lot of friendly environmentalist women asking people their opinions, they experience an over-riding social pressure to conform with the surveyors beliefs. It would feel rude and belligerent to express one's dissent in such an atmosphere.
The sample was also biased, because Greening Princeton advertised it as an event and encouraged environmentalists to attend. Additionally, boycotters of the trayless meal were obviously not present to have their voices heard.
"Forbes did, however, give its diners disposable plastic cups that were much larger than the glasses that are normally provided."
I could be wrong, but I don't think that's very environmentally friendly.
Once again, environmentalists have managed to force their quasireligious views on everyone else, making life uncomfortable to further their agenda.
OMG. DON'T TAKE AWAY MY TRAY. I NEED IT TO LIVE.
I... I just don't understand... I want to eat food, but I can only hold one plate at a time... how - how do I get more food? My head hurts.
Grow up. Did you use a tray at home? If you didn't need one for 18-20 years, you'll probably be just fine. Are you going to complain to your eating club and demand that they get trays too?
Is it really too much to ask for you to walk back and forth twice to the servery?
There are zero trays in eating clubs. Trayless dining in dining halls is more than doable.
Doable, yes. We could also subsist on gruel and water. The question is why should we have to make *any* sacrifice to kowtow to the religious views of a few environmentalists? Amazing how we whine about some religious talk in an optional convocation but are expected to make sacrifices for this new secular religion.
using trays at home is completely different from a dining hall, unless your house has several serving stations and you eat several hundred feet away from said serving stations, you can't compare a home to a dining hall. carrying several plates, bowls, and glasses to a table is far different from reaching to a serving dish or platter located on the table. and i know of people who do use trays in their homes, especially for breakfast in bed
@ac - I'm afraid your stance, that any attempt at change should be considered 'quasi-religious,' is a little shallow-minded. "The environmentalists" are not trying to force this down our throats - someone put forward the theory that we could reduce waste and save money by going trayless. There is evidence supporting this theory, as others have already tried it and verified the predictions. What we saw in Forbes was an experiment - attempting to categorize these people will only narrow your mind further and prevent you from seeing viable solutions to problems.
I have said NOTHING of how the results of this experiment will be interpreted or how they actually went about testing their theory - the plastic cups seem incredibly wasteful to me, and were probably a measure to inflate the gains of water saved (since the glasses would not need to be washed). There's nothing wrong with what "the environmentalists" have done so far, but if they falsify or tamper with the results, the individuals that did so can be criticized for bad science.
In an eating club, which is a much smaller, more intimate environment, you don't need trays, because you're much closer to the food and the food is all close together. The size of serveries and the distances traveled to dining areas are much greater.
Additionally, I'm sure all gains will be off-set by having to replace the conveyor belt machinery, buy new cups, and throw the old ones away. Finally, if trays needed to be washed, that means they got dirty. I ask, if the dirt that would ordinarily go on trays no longer has anywhere to go, then that means we'll have messier tables, which will not only also require water to clean, but also prove disgusting.