Stop Plastics At Breakfast

THE LIMITED breakfast plan, announced last spring by Dean Fox without an opportunity for student consideration, may be the most practical way to save the money needed to open the Freshman Union on weekends without increasing board charges. Frequent student complaints about the plan and the vote of the Committee on Houses and Undergraduate Life against a similar proposal two years ago, however, indicate that the present system should not be considered final.

The use of throw-away plastic dishes and utensils in many of the eight dining halls serving continental, or cold breakfasts, represents a wasteful and ecologically unsound practice that should be changed. Certainly, there are savings in energy and time to be gained by not washing breakfast dishes in those Houses. These savings are offset, however, by the cost in energy and resources needed to make the dishes in the first place, and by the fact that the discarded dishes, being non-biodegradable, add to an already serious environmental problem when thrown out.

Because fewer dishes and kitchen utensils are used in the dining halls serving cold breakfast, the College would still save money, compared with the old plan, by washing dishes in all dining halls. And since the trays used by students eating cold breakfasts are not disposable, washing all dishes in those eight Houses would not involve much added expense in any case.