Green Daily

The school recently conducted a "waste audit" to make students aware of how much food they're tossing every day, and to encourage them to cut it out.

For four days, the University monitored what was thrown out in the dining hall, and separated the waste into three main categories: edible food waste, inedible food waste, and trash. The food was weighed and divided by the number of diners to determine the amount wasted per student.

The outcome? OU found that students threw away 1,200 pounds of edible food, or about 3.25 ounces of food per student, per meal. Another way to think about it? That's enough food to feed approximately 357 additional people.

In order to help at least temporarily solve the problem, school officials removed plastic trays from the dining hall, forcing students to take only what they could carry or to make several trips back and forth. Typically, some kids whined or were confused, but many understood what the school was trying to do.

But others, still, argued that as long as they (or, most likely their parents) are paying for the meal plan, why shouldn't they be able to grab eight bowls of Lucky Charms and five cinnamon rolls in one sitting?

It's this "I'm technically allowed to, so I might as well" mentality that drives many people to perform selfish or wasteful acts. It's what drives many to overeat or overimbibe at, say, weddings or restaurants. I remember thinking this way in my college dining hall, too (The cake is just sitting there, I might as well take it...). It's not a crime for kids to indulge a little, especially when faced with a smorgasbord of dining options. But if we can get people to take a step back and realize their eating habits, as OU did with its students, perhaps that's all some people need to adjust their mentalities and change their ways.