Law Plate Club Report
Introduction
The Green Committee is a committee under the Law Student’s Association and has for many years been interested in reducing emissions, improving recycling measures and reducing energy consumption at the law faculty. In 2010, the committee, along with the
LSA, committed themselves to a five year green plan with the goal of implementing measures to make the faculty more environmentally friendly. In connection with this plan, members of the committee had commenced discussions on the possibility of introducing a plate rental service, a project that came to fruition in 2011.
The Faculty of law holds many events such as weekly cocktails, wine and cheese gatherings, presentations where food and drink are offered and many other events where plates, utensils and glasses are used. Members of the committee noticed that disposable items were frequently used at these events; our estimates were that a minimum of 300 disposable paper plates were thrown out every week, with a similar high amount of plastic cups disposed of weekly. Each school year, there are about 5,000 such items disposed of by the law community. Our aim with a dish rental service is to reduce and eliminate the use of disposable dishware which, once disposed of and buried, decomposes and produces methane, a major greenhouse gas.
Steps Taken to Implement the Project
One of the first things the committee did was research the feasibility of the project. This included comparing our idea with similar projects like the SSMU Plat Club and similar services at the University of Montreal. By studying their services and systems, we were able to develop more concrete plans for implementing our own project. Using this information, we narrowed our project to these issues:

Funding our project;

Finding ecologically friendly but also durable dishware;

Assessing the ideal amount of dishware needed;

Finding a place on site to store the dishware;

Recruiting volunteers to participate in the project;

Organizing the internal functioning of our project, such as pickup and drop-off procedures, loan forms, cleanliness guidelines etc.

Marketing our project to ensure members of the community are aware of its existence;

Ensuring institutional integration of the project for its long-term viability.
The Dishware
Having previously studied the consumption of disposable items at the faculty, the committee concluded that around 100 plates would be the ideal amount of plates for events that are usually held at the faculty.

The Committee wanted to ensure that the dishware purchased was durable and ecologically friendly. We decided to purchase the items from Deprés Laporte, a Québec distributor of restaurant equipment and supplies. The dishes are unbreakable and made in
Québec. The company also delivered the dishes to us on site. The order consisted of:
FIND RECEIPT
Storage
The committee met with the Dean of the Law Faculty to discuss possibilities as to the storage of the plates on site. After some consideration and discussions with building administrators, it was decided that a kitchen used by some student groups on the third floor of the New Chancellor Day Hall would be the best place to store the items. The third floor is kept locked after building hours, however students with after-hours access can enter the floor. The kitchen is locked with a code and only students who work in student clubs or associations on the third floor have access to the kitchen.
After some discussions within the club, it was decided that the third floor was an adequate place to store the plates. First of all, few people had access to the kitchen making it a safe place to store the items. In addition, the kitchen has a dishwasher which could be used if ever dishes would inadvertently be returned dirty. We did however have to ensure that all members of the Green Committee were given after-hours access to the third floor.
Integration of the Project Within the Community
Once the items were purchased, the committee commenced marketing efforts to ensure that members of the community were aware that the service was available. To this end, ads were placed in the student newspaper The Quid Novi
, as well as on the faculty’s
Notice Board . The loan form was placed on the Law Student Association’s website and a new email account was created in anticipation of completed rental forms.
The Rental System
Students can borrow plates and utensils from the Green Law Committee. Dishware can be borrowed for a maximum period of 24 hours, with exceptions for rentals immediately before weekends or statutory holidays. A twenty-dollar penalty is charged per day for late return of the dishware. The borrowers are responsible for washing and drying the dishware. Penalties ranging from fifty cents to five dollars are charged for broken or missing dishware on the basis of the cost of replacing the dishware. A penalty of one dollar is charged for every unwashed plate or utensil.
To reserve dishware, individuals must complete the rental form and email it to the Green
Law Committee at greenlaw.committee@gmail.com
at least 24 hours before the event is to take place. Individuals must also specify the times at which they plan to pick up and drop off the dishware. A committee member prepares the requested amount of dishware

before the pick-up time and meets the borrower in front of the 3 rd
floor kitchen to exchange the dishware for the twenty-dollar deposit. Depending on how many plates are being borrowed, the committee member may also give the borrower use of the trolley to transport the dishware. After the event, a committee member meets the borrower in the
3 rd
floor kitchen to determine if any dishware is lost, damaged, or dirty, charge penalties if necessary, and return the deposit. The committee member washes any remaining dirty dishware.
Leadership Plan
As a committee under the purview of the Law Students’ Association (LSA), the Green
Law Committee works with the LSA to hire new members and promote its sustainability initiatives like Plate Club. At the end of every school year, the LSA sends out a call for applications for its committees, including the Green Law Committee. If any spots are not filled over the summer, a second call for applications is sent out in late August. Thus far, the Green Law Committee has kept at least one old member each year, and received between 1 and 3 new members. This process will ensure that the institutional knowledge about the running of Plate Club is preserved and passed along.
Moreover, the LSA committee status ensures that in the event that the Green Law
Committee was discontinued, management of Plate Club would pass to the LSA executive, likely to the VP-Administration or VP-Internal portfolio.
Feedback
Plate Club lent out dishware on seven occasions throughout the fall semester, both to student clubs as well as to the Career Development Office. Thus far, feedback from borrowers and users of Plate Club has been generally positive. The Faculty of Law is very conscious of the importance of sustainability, and this is reflected in the enthusiasm of the service’s borrowers. Constructively, several borrowers suggested that they would have liked to be able to borrow reusable glasses and bowls. Occasionally, borrowers expressed frustration at the need to wash the dishware themselves.
Challenges & Lessons Learned
One of the most difficult aspects of Plate Club has been the staffing. With only two students on the Green Law Committee, both of who are taking a full course-load and participate in other extracurricular activities, relatively simple jobs took longer to complete. It can be challenging to coordinate pick-up and drop-off times for dishware with the availabilities of the committee members. A larger membership would also make it easier to publicize Plate Club within the Faculty. Though the Committee has made a continual effort to recruit other students, there does not seem to be as much interest within the Faculty in running Plate Club as there is in participating in Plate Club.
A more minor challenge involves controlling unauthorized access to the dishware.
Though the dishware is stored in a locked room, other student groups do have access to that room to store and reheat their food. Some of them thought the dishware was there for their use, and used it accordingly, leading to missing and unwashed dishware. We addressed this problem by explaining the situation to the executives of the student groups

with access as well as by putting up a bilingual sign instructing students to contact us before taking the dishware.
Lastly, we had one very unfortunate incident involving miscommunication about a dishwasher. The Faculty has graciously allowed us the use of the dishwasher on the 3 rd floor, in the locked room where the dishware is stored, but there is an additional dishwasher on the first floor near the room where many of the student events are held. A miscommunication about which dishwasher to use led to one of the student groups using the 1 st
floor dishwasher with the wrong kind of soap and creating a large mess. After the dean approached us about the problem, we talked to the student group involved about why their actions were problematic. Since then, we have avoided similar incidents by explicitly forbidding student groups from using the 1 st
floor dishwasher and providing explicit instructions on how to use a dishwasher.
Suggestions for Similar Projects
1.
Conduct an internal discussion within your Faculty to ascertain the level of support for the initiative.
2.
Ensure that your dishware will be stored in a secure and sanitary location.
3.
Ensure that your policies are made explicit to your users, possibly even holding an info session to answer questions and raise the profile of the club.
4.
Recruit a staff of at least three students to run the initiative.
5.
From the beginning, develop a leadership plan for the club so that it can continue to run despite changes in the membership composition.