The Land of the Plates

12 o’clock hits. Students bolt out the doors of the classroom and flood into the dining halls. The sounds of glass plates clinking together fill the large space. The hundreds and hundreds of plates. How can anyone use just one?

One plate is both a blessing and a curse. On one hand I am more conscious about what I’m taking from the buffet line and what I am actually eating. On the other hand, it is very difficult to only use one plate because of the rules of the dining hall.

And I feel guilty when I have a plate for food, a plate for salad and then a bowl for soup. Until I had to change my behavior, I didn’t realize how much I was using. But, it wasn’t just me; every one was using multiple plates.

As the first week has passed, I have unfortunately only been able to use one plate only once. It is not as easy as it seems. And it isn’t that I am constantly getting a bunch of plates every meal, I just need to use different ones at certain times. I think the hardest thing was the mentality of knowing that I wasn’t fulfilling my goal and that was frustrating. However, I also think that a positive aspect is that I am becoming more aware of the problem. Usually, in order to change a behavior the first step is to be aware of it and then to actively be conscious about changing it. I think I am moving towards making a conscious effort to change it. My way of going about it may need work. Maybe I need to look all around the dining hall to see the food before I even pick up a plate. There are different approaches that I could try.

I found a website called endfoodwastenow.org and it had a special section about universities. Some schools have used composting and trayless dining in order to reduce food waste, and conserve water and energy. Fortunately, statistics show that it is working. I think that Lafayette has something like that in place, but I am not particularly sure how it works. Maybe knowing about that will help me in going forward with this challenge.

With that, I close the door on week #1 and venture into week #2 one plate at a time!

http://www.endfoodwastenow.org/index.php/issues/issues-schools