Tuesday during lunch, Bethel University’s Monson Dining Center tried a new system of getting food called “Trayless Tuesday”. Instead of students grabbing a tray and placing food directly on it, they could only grab a plate.

Students passed around different theories for why “Trayless Tuesday” was happening. Some said it was because of micro-plastics, some said it was because of food waste, others said it was because the trays were made of fiber-glass and it was unhealthy to eat off them. 

Jay Rekedal, the general manager of Sodexo at Bethel, has answers for students. Trayless Tuesday is intended to limit food waste and make Bethel’s dining center more sustainable. Rekedal mentioned that it was a corporate initiative to lower the amount of waste. Sodexo employees compared the food waste during lunch on both Monday and Tuesday to see if waste would decrease without trays. The tests worked well but were still affected by other variables, like the menu for each day and the number of people who ate during that meal.

Rekedal hopes to have Trayless Tuesday again, but he also said that the dining center is not planning to get rid of the trays completely.