Students and faculty began using reusable metal utensils and plastic trays again as the upper school kitchen staff reopened the dishwashing system in the middle of Manzanita Hall after three weeks of using paper boats and plastic utensils.

Construction for the new station began over the summer but extended into the first few weeks of the school year. The new washing area is larger, since the kitchen staff needed more room to arrange the dirty dishes before they go into the dishwasher itself. There is also more space to dry all the dishes and trays on a rack after they are washed.

“The dishwasher is a little different now because it is a little longer in length,” Callie Stanley, Executive Director of Food Services, said. “It’s now a conveyor belt versus the one last year that you have to fill up, taking more time. It’s all one continuous wash.”

Before the dishwashing station reopened, the school dealt with a lot more waste due to the use of paper products; however, Stanley hopes that this new system will result in a reduction in trash as well as less traffic for the students.

“The flow last year was hard, trying to get everyone in that little window, so this new one creates more flow and hopefully as the year progresses, it will all be one fast motion,” Stanley said.

Additionally, the new dishwasher is more energy and water efficient than the previous machine. Due to an ongoing flow on a conveyer belt, there is no longer a need for rushing water to wash every dish.

“I think that the dishwasher room finally opening is going to solve some of the problems that happened these past few weeks like the trash increase and maybe this will save the water consumption,” Stephanie Xiao (10) said. “But I don’t know that in the long run it will work, since now this is gonna create a new long line in the middle of Manzanita.”

Junior Shreyas Chandrashekaran discussed the improvements the dishwashing system could help solve.

“It may cramp up Manzanita and not leave direct access to the Bistro, but it will definitely help in areas of water and energy,” he said. “Plus, there aren’t fluctuating levels of trash, which is quite a benefit because sometimes the trash cans get so filled up, I have to walk over to another one to put my trash down.”

The kitchen staff is pleased about the new energy efficient system and hopes to see the benefits of decreased waste and improved traffic flow as the year advances.