Trayless, One Week Later

It's been a week since I've used a tray, and honestly, shifting my behavior hasn't been that difficult. It requires a little more conscious thought when going into the dining halls, as the trays are in the front and if I just went on autopilot I would probably pick one up. And just being vigilant about this behavior has led me to re-examine all the other little things I do. I'm working on 5 minute showers now, and instead of throwing away my yogurt cup, I did a little research and found out that Tufts recycles the kind of plastic that it was made out of, so I recycled it! I guess this could be classified as positive reinforcement--as when I don't use a tray, I feel good about helping the environment and achieving my goal, and that happy feeling is definitely an incentive.

I've also been trying to convince my friends to join me in this behavior, and even that hasn't been as hard as I thought. If I'm eating with a group, I usually suggest that we put our stuff down first (thus making it easier to have a place to bring multiple trips of food to, if needed) and announce that I'm not using trays anymore and why and that I would really appriciate it if they did too. The hard thing, though, will be getting them to stick with it, as I think most people just do it once to humor me. Even though some friends aren't so into it, i've still been telling everyone about my habit modification. This way, if I slip up and forget, my friends will be there to remind me/heckle me about it. I did this to Alex the other day when he didn't finish all the food on his plate (as that's the behavior he's trying to modify) and convinced the other people we were eating with to heckle him as well, and it got him to at least attempt at finishing his peas...

One of the things that I have noticed is a big factor in determining this (and a lot of other) behaviors is convenience. Most of my friends recognized that they don't particularly need trays, they just do it out of habit and the fact that it saves them an extra trip. So maybe it wouldn't be so hard to phase out trays at Tufts. Another thing that MB pointed out is that Tufts has rediculously small cups, so everyone always takes 2 or 3 cups, making it difficult to carry that and a plate without a tray. So if they took away the trays and gave us larger cups, this might just work for everyone...but perhaps that is a project for another day.

Changing Habits

I like to think of myself as a person with pretty good habits. I rarely drink caffeine or soda, don't eat meat, exercise daily, and have gotten into the habit of sleeping at least 8 hours a night (a rare feat for a college student!) I'm not deluding myself into thinking there aren't things that I shouldn't change, though, especially when it comes to my environmentally-conscious habits. But in thinking of a habit I wanted to change, I struggled to find something that I actually thought would be worthwhile to change, and that I actually wanted to do. Go vegan? No, I would probably starve without cheese. Take shorter showers? My showers are already 10 minutes maximum, and I cherish those 5-10 minutes every morning. Stop using the dryer? I already hang up half my clothing, and there's no room in my dorm for a drying rack.

So I finally settled on something that I thought was both worthwhile and doable: going trayless when I eat in the dining halls. Many colleges and universities have already gone trayless; my friends at Pomona and Wellesley have no trays in their dining halls. According to USAToday,

"Some campuses that already have tested the concept report food waste declines of up to 50%. Then, there's the thousands of dollars in energy savings when trays don't need washing. An astonishing 79% of the 92,000 students surveyed this spring by Aramark said they support trayless dining to reduce campus waste." (USATODAY.com)

I tried it this morning at brunch, and I actually liked it! I took less food, wasted less, and felt good at the thought that a little less water would be used to wash my things. It's going to be an inconvenience at times, but I think that it's something that I can keep up throughout the semester and beyond.

My Eco-Self

So the first project for Environmental Action was to "re-introduce" ourselves to people as our new and improved eco-self. This way, it will supposedly ease us into being "that person" who makes people turn off their lights, recycle, turn down their heat, etc. I got really excited about this and walked back into Miller (where I live) and ran into LL studying in the common room, and decided to make her my first victim. I told her about the class and shook her hand, introducing myself as "Eco-Rachael". She got really excited for my project, and told me that I should go by that and fashion myself a new superhero, righting environmental wrongs and wearing a green cape. She also has already picked out music for my theme song. Whatever works...

I then visited HB, MD, JM, AR, and NS in Wren (another dorm) and decided to try it out on them. "Do we have to do anything? Can't you just lie and say we did it?" protested HB and MD, even though I explained that all they had to do was listen to me introduce myself. Once they realized that I was finished, they concluded that eco-Rachael seemed not very different from regular Rachael.

Lastly I went to go tell MB, to which he responded, a little put off, "You don't need to tell me to turn off my lights or recycle. I already do that."

So, on the whole, people don't seem to be too surprised at the "new" Eco-Rachael. While I'm not a stickler on everything, I already try to remind people to turn off their lights and recycle their paper and glass. But I'm excited to try to do more--and who knows, maybe I'll even become one of those people who brings her own Tupperware to a barbecue :).

P.S. In case you were wondering, this is what LL suggested be my "Eco-theme song": Down To Earth

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