Greening Our Schools' Cafeterias

There is great potential for making our cafeteria more environmentally friendly. It also presents some of the biggest challenges. The purpose of this post is to present some basic information, brainstorm ideas, and develop goals and strategies.

Trays
The use of disposable polystyrene trays is coming under increased scrutiny in recent years. The negative impact polystyrene has on the environment and potentially our children's health have caused many schools to look at alternatives. Woolridge Elementary School uses approximately 500 trays every day. This equals 90,000 trays over the course of the school year. Here are the pros and cons of a variety of different options:

Disposable Polystyrene Trays

• Pros: These trays cost about 4 cents each (500 count package) and is the least expensive option. When purchased on bulk, these trays cost less than cent each. Additional savings is realized by reducing or eliminating the need for hot water, detergent, labor costs, and capital costs (dishwasher, replacement trays, maintenance, etc). The trays are strong, lightweight, and are a good insulator.


• Cons: Polystyrene trays are made from petroleum and are created using an energy intensive process. Some of the ingredients used to produce polystyrene (ex. - Benzene) are known carcinogens. Medical studies show that these chemicals leach into food and drinks, but it is still being debated if enough chemicals leach into the food and drink to create a health risk. Because the trays are disposable, the trays ultimately end up in our landfills. Polystyrene will not degrade for thousands of years but is otherwise pretty benign once in a landfill.

Reusable Plastic Trays Trays

• Pros: These trays are reused so no trays end up going to the landfill. It's possible that this option has the least impact on the environment although that's hard to quantify. The trays are very durable and need to be replaced about every six years.


• Cons: This is likely the most expensive option. The school district has to pay for water, energy to heat the water, detergent, and labor costs for these trays to be cleaned in the dishwasher. Other costs not considered by many people are the capital costs. The dishwasher needs to be maintained, and money needs to be put aside for its eventual replacement. The same holds true for the trays and dishes. They need to replaced eventually as well.

Disposable Sugar Cane Bagasse Trays

Sugar Cane Bagasse, is a high yield, rapid and renewable resource. Bagasse is the fibrous residue left over after the sugar cane has been crushed and the sugar extracted. The bagasse is pulped and ECF bleached, and then the bagasse fibers are woven to create the trays and other products.

• Pros: Sugar cane bagasse is a rapidly renewable resource and requires less energy to produce compared to polystyrene trays. Bagasse is a waste product that originally was simply thrown away. Now many uses have been developed for this waste product. The trays can withstand heat, are microwaveable, biodegradable, and are FDA approved for food service. Additional cost and energy savings are realized by reducing or eliminating the need for hot water, detergent, labor costs, and capital costs.
  
• Cons: These trays cost about 8 cents each (500 count package). This price will be must less if they are purchased in bulk but are generally twice as expensive as the polystyrene trays. This small difference in price is quite significant when you add up all the trays used during the school year. Even though the trays are biodegradable, they will not easily decompose in a landfill. Landfills are designed to be very compact and do not allow oxygen to permeate under the surface. The bacteria that cause material to decompose can not live without oxygen, therefore the material does not decompose. The trays will biodegrade if they were composted instead of sent to a landill.

Disposable Bio-Plastic Trays

These trays are frequently made from corn starch or potato starch.

• Pros: These trays are similar to the sugar cane fiber trays in that they are made from renewable resource. The trays can withstand heat, are microwaveable, biodegradable, and are FDA approved for food service. They offer similar cost savings over reusable trays by eliminating the costs associated with washing trays.


• Cons: Similar to the sugar cane bagasse trays, these trays will not easily decompose in a landfill. These trays cost about 8 cents each (500 count package). This price will be must less if they are purchased in bulk but are generally twice as expensive as the polystyrene trays. These trays are not made from a waste product as the crops used are spefically grown for this purpose.

Recycling

Recycling is perhaps the easiest thing we can do to make our cafeteria more environmentally friendly. As you can imagine, the cafeteria generates a tremendous amount of trash. Our school is already off to a great start recycling and reducing the amount of trash generated. Here's a highlight of what we're doing already:

• There is a recycle bin for aluminum cans and #1 and #2 plastic bottles. The custodian empties this every day into the school's recycling dumpster. The recycling dumpster is generously funded by the Woolridge PTA.


• There is a recycle bin for juice pouches. Volunteers collect the juice pouches on a regular basis, rinse them out, and ship them to TerraCycle. TerraCycle turns the juice pouches into backpacks, pencil cases, and other school supplies. In return, the Woolridge Green Club earns 2 cents for each juice pouch returned.


• There are signs posted to help students identify items to be recycled and items to be discarded in the trash.
  
• The cafeteria workers break down cardboard boxes for recycling.

Some new things we're starting this year include:

• We requested the lunch monitors' assistance in reminding the students to properly dispose of their recyclables. Hopefully this will improve our recycling rate.


• The Green Club recently purchased a bulletin board to be mounted in the cafeteria. The bulletin board will display information about recycling in the cafeteria as well as other green tips.

Here are some ideas for what can be done to improve cafeteria recycling in the future:

• Add another recycling bin to collect #5 bottle tops. These are the plastic screw tops from water, juice, and soda bottles. Aveda takes these bottle tops and recycles them into new beauty supply bottles.
  
• Fabricate a "recycling station" that has different compartments for the different recyclables. The recycling containers would be hidden out of view behind the cabinets.

Waste Reduction
Hundreds of students eat lunch in the cafeteria every school day. There is great potential for reducing the amount of trash generated no matter if students purchase a lunch or bring one from home.

If your child brings his/her lunch to school, consider making it a "waste-free" lunch. It doesn't have to be something fancy like the picture at the right. Use small, reusable storage containers and a thermos instead of using disposable plastic bags. Buy larger sized beverage containers and pour your kid's drink into their thermos. Not only does it reduce waste, but it saves money!
If your child purchases his/her lunch at school, encourage your child to use only the utensils and napkins needed.

Thoughts and Ideas

1. Some schools have enlisted the help of student and parent volunteers to wash reusable trays.

Summary

Hopefully this post has provided some useful information. The first step in making changes is to become educated about an issue. You are encouraged to leave comments about the information I have posted and to provide your own input on how we can make the Woolridge Elementary School cafeteria more environmentally friendly.