Our Green Tray program has three components: trash, composting and recycling.  
Trash:  We ask our customers to either leave it on the tray or throw it away. Trash is categorized as: cracker wrappers, chip bags, metal and plastic bottle caps, frill toothpicks, plastic portion packs: mayo, peanut butter, jelly, cream cheese, foil butter wraps.
Composting:  We  compost all food waste, paper cups, straws, napkins, sugar packets, basket liners, paper cartons, wood stir sticks, tea bags and wrappers.
Recycling:  We remove and clean foil tops from yogurt containers.  In addition, we recycle all plastics #1 to #7  as well as glass bottles.

Composting

As of  4/24/08, we have composted 74,670 gallons of food waste from our kitchen and the Green Tray program.
Goal:  Our goal is to reduce the amount of waste that is taken to the landfill.
Impact: Our staff and students are now separating food scraps from recycling and trash.  Not only does this help the dish room staff, but it makes all participants proactive in minimizing our footprint on the earth.  Our customers only need to pull the recyclables off the tray to do their part.
Results:  In an effort to minimize our footprint on the earth, we have worked on better practices in composting and trash disposal.
September 2006-February 2007—We did not compost and we sent 135,040 lbs of trash to the local landfill.
September 2007-February 2008—We composted 55,575 gallons of food waste and sent 42,380 lbs of trash to the landfill.
Through prudence, determination and research, we have reduced the waste sent to the landfill by an astounding 68.62%.

Or, put another way, the garbage-truck size trash compactor that sits on the U.C. loading dock used to be emptied once a week. Now, it's emptied about five times a year.

Napkin Dispensers vs. Baskets

In the fall of 2007, we switched from napkins in baskets to napkin dispensers.  We now purchase about 10% less—which translates to 8 fewer cases or 48,000 fewer napkins when compared to the same time frame for 2006-2007.

Paper Straws

When The Commons switched to the use of  paper straws, we reduced the amount of  un-recyclable plastic to the local landfill by 3.276 miles of straws placed end to end. We're using Aardvark paper drinking straws, they are a sustainable product that is fully biodegradable, compost-friendly and 100% chlorine free.