When I was on SLU’s campus recently, I noticed that the cafeterias there had gotten rid of trays. It’s one of the more quirky methods that colleges nationwide are using to go green. This way, schools don’t have to waste water in washing the trays.

Students do have to make a couple more trips to the cafeteria line, but nobody seemed to mind on the day I visited.

Now I see that WashU is considering doing away with bottled water on campus — including those bottles sold by dining services and the bookstore and those given out at convocation. A story in today’s Student Life, the campus’ student newspaper, details the initiative.

T.J. Pepping, a sophomore on a campus sustainability committee, told the newspaper:

“Most disposable water bottles are used once and then thrown away, and regardless of whether or not they are recycled, huge amounts of resources go into producing the water bottles, transporting them and disposing them.”

He added, “It just doesn’t make sense to be wasting all of those resources on bottled water, especially considering that St. Louis has some of the best tap water in the country and a fair amount of bottled water is just tap water.”

This makes me curious: What other interesting green-friendly initiatives do you know about at area campuses?