A groan goes up across the student body: reusable trays are coming! While these cumbersome hunks of plastic supposedly save the environment, they must also be deposited at the washroom window, a chore that has many students fuming.

“It’s totally annoying,” says sophomore Kurt de Fiebre.

Clearly, ecological value alone cannot sell a student body on doing extra work, no matter how little work is actually being asked of them. Anything worthwhile clearly needs to be fun, so here are some alternative uses of lunch trays that are sure to bring out their hidden fun qualities.

Sleds

While hardly a unique idea, as the weather gets colder and snow begins to fall, the outdoors begins to open up wonderful new playtime possibilities.  One of these is sledding.  But, as all too many kids are painfully aware, sleds can be expensive. A much easier, cheaper option is to utilize those plastic cafeteria trays.  Any college kid can explain how best to sit atop the puny sled, pushing off down some giant hill into the great beyond.  Popular sites include the USC golf course, high school stairs, and Vancouver, Canada (see also: Sean White).  Variations of this design might include tray wakeboarding, tray skiing (two trays required), and tray parachuting (Hold on tight!).

Building Supplies

We’ve all seen the T.V. spots in which a guy builds a house out of Bud Light bottles.  Why not build a house out of school lunch trays?  As an environmentally-friendly alternative to wooden construction, a house built entirely of plastic trays would be the envy of the neighborhood, not to mention a place where one could eat anywhere.

Another popular use for lunch trays is as temporary pothole patches.  Unfortunately, trays are one-use only in this capacity.

Trading Cards

Finally, the best use of the ungainly new lunch trays is as giant playing cards.  With a little paint and a little creativity, soon even people who are visually impaired could play Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh. As an added bonus, no one could stealthily steal anyone’s trading cards, as it would be relatively obvious for someone to walk off with a giant red trading card they didn’t have before.

So next time you’re in the cafeteria, take a hard look at the stacks of trays in the washroom window.  Might they be put to better use?