When you look around at a UB Dining Center, you'll notice something is missing.

"I've spilled and dropped stuff already.  I liked my trays so I could carry all my juice," said UB Freshman Simon Sarabura.

All four of UB's residential dining centers have now gone trayless.

"We're looking at thousands of gallons of water that's not being used just to wash the trays," said UB Campus Dining and Shops Marketing Manager Ray Kohl.

UB has implemented a trayless dining format to help the University reduce their carbon foot print in the environment.

In one semester, "we're anticipating nearly about 50,000 pounds of food waste," said Kohl.

"There's a lot of people that eat here and if you don't have a tray you can't take nearly as much food," said UB Sophomore Stephen Wolff.

A seemingly simple idea.  Take away the trays, reduce food waste by 50 percent.

However, for some students it's become a daily balancing act.

"I drop stuff and I have to keep going back and forth, back and forth," said Sarabura.

"Usually you just pile up all the food that you want, even if you don't really want it you'll just take it and now it's kinda hard to walk away with more than one plate of food," said Wolff.

With UB's trayless dining program, the University saves one quart of water per tray.  Along with reducing food waste, UB also uses less energy and fewer chemicals that would usually be spent processing uneaten food.

"As a dining program that's all you care to eat, they can certainly go up to it as much as they want, what we're asking students to do is just really think about their choices," said Kohl.