<p>Trays, heck, they are getting rid of cafeterias at some colleges.</p>
<p>Getting rid of trays is ridiculous. I don't care about the "waste" excuse. I can figure out how much I want to eat and plan accordingly. For god's sake, I'm in college, planning my whole future. And they think I can't figure out food? I am, however, human, and have only two hands. Thus, a tray is a very helpful thing.</p>
<p>dumb idea. once again, someone has to "think" for you??? You can't decide how much you want to eat. Good luck trying to carry soup, salad and a drink, since many places don't want to give you a lid.</p>
<p>Here at 'Nova, one of the dining halls (St. Mary's) is trayless. I think people do think about what they want to eat. When you have a bowl of cereal, something to drink, and want to get fruit, the tray comes in very handy. Not to mention (well, I'm just being redundant now) the fact that a lot of crumbs/spills end up on the trays.</p>
<p>When people don't need the trays (at the dining halls that have them), they don't use them, and I haven't noticed a lot of waste (even with one meal = all you can eat until you leave).</p>
<p>I'm guilty. I have stolen about a dozen trays from my cafeteria, all in different colors. They have come in handy: stair boarding, snow boarding, used as baseball plates, etc.</p>
<p>Next thing you know, they'll want to get rid of napkins and utensils. Idiots!</p>
<p>NOW if they would lower the meal plan costs I would understand this.
They raised the money. I dont think they are trying to be eco friendly, just trying to be cheap bastards. It's really annoying to carry like 3 plates of food (salad dish, soup, main course) and a drink!</p>
<p>And there's a lot more mess around the general cafeteria area, so I guess that probably doesn't save much money.</p>
<p>No trays at UVA. It is a pain in the neck</p>
<p>Actually, you can grab the dirty trays off the dish return at O'Hill. They use them for returning dishes from the third floor. Don't be concerned about hygiene: you won't be eating off of them, just using them to carry your plates. ;)</p>
<p>My son starts college next week, and I just checked pictures of his cafeteria and saw LOTS of trays. YES! I think the no-tray idea is ridiculous, for all the reasons posters have already given. This is one thing in our world that actually works well, so why mess with it? Certainly our high-tech engineers can figure out a way to wash a tray that doesn't take 1/2 gallon of water. And if our college students are made aware of the extra cost of food wastage, I'm sure they can respond in a positive way.</p>
<p>Cornell did this in one dining hall (Risley), and a lot of my friends and I decided not to go there after a week or two and joke that it's because the trays were removed. Though it's annoying as hell, I guess it's for the better. I wouldnt be surprised to see Cornell take all the trays away from all of the dining halls within the next few years.</p>
<p>School supplies: Let's see, paper, pens, binders, stapler, TRAYS. I know, they could be foldable so as to fit easily into one's backpack and come in cool designs and colors.</p>
<p>My school (where many students are as pro-eco-friendly as you can get) tried this out for a week and had to change it back because it ****ed people off so much. As others have said, it's just impractical--there are many resonable sized meals that need more than two hands to carry (esp. at lunch, when people often have books and bags because they are eating in betwen classes).</p>