Dining Hall Uses Plastic Utensils and Paper Plates for Weeks

Despite the Clarke sustainability policy being that they “address the organization’s environmental, social and economic impacts”, the dining hall garbage cans fill up more and more each meal. When the dishwasher broke about 6 weeks ago, students understood that paper and plastic tableware were a necessary replacement, but as time goes on the students and faculty are wondering what has happened to the environmentally conscious practices of the dining hall and the washable plates that we were so used to.

The current problems stem from when the dishwasher technician came to fix the broken machine and another part broke. While the dining hall is waiting for the part to come in, the dishwasher works, but not fully. The dining hall staff has decided to only use it lightly for in-kitchen material until the new part arrives and the machine can function fully again. According to the dining hall, an overuse of the machine could have very bad consequences as it may break down completely while washing the plates of all the students, faculty and staff. For some, this poses the question whether avoiding the risk of further damage is worth the excess production of trash?

The dining hall usually feeds around 300 people every day, split between lunch and dinner. With approximately one plate and two utensils per person, over the course of the last 6 weeks, the dining hall has accumulated over 10,800 wasted paper plates and over 21,600 utensils. Additionally, the cost for all those plates poses added costs for the university. Unfortunately, the dishwashing company has not delivered the piece yet and for that span, the dining hall cannot fully use the dishwasher.

An anonymous student reflects on her first impression of the dining hall when she first came to Clarke, “Clarke cared for the environment, we were trying to take care of our community.” This student noticed the real plates disappearing about a month ago and while she’s not particularly upset, she does think Clarke is beginning to take a step backwards. As we do in our hallway trash receptacles, she remembers that “Clarke had students separate their recyclables, compostables and that which does not fall into either one.” The recycling efforts of Clarke have always been highly respectable, so she hopes that the missing part arrives soon, so that the dining hall can get back to its sustainability. So far, there is no information from the dishwashing company as to why there is such a big delay in delivering the missing piece.

Clarke’s sustainability practices and policies have long been impressive and impactful, but day by day the dining hall takes out more and more trash full of paper and plastic. The school needs the dishwasher to be repaired as soon as possible to return to the sustainable school that values recycling and the environment that Clarke advertises that it is.