Styrofoam lunch tray recycling challenge
When neighboring school Bridlemile threw down the gauntlet to our school and others in the area to wash and collect this week's styrofoam lunch trays and bring them to the recycling event they're hosting this Saturday, I was surprised that our school got the green light to participate, and shocked myself by volunteering to help wash (quickly followed by screaming inside my head: 'Holy cow! What's wrong with you? You just volunteering to do what??')
After the first two days of washing, pretty much everyone on our school's green team is convinced this isn't really sustainable. The hot water necessary to wash the dreaded greasy ranch dressing (give me ketchup any day!) off a stack of 150 foam trays a day. Woe to the first day's volunteers (count our Heather among them) who operated under the misunderstanding that they had to dry the trays too and used (cringe) paper towels because they didn't know where the cloth towels were. The back-straining valuable time of a volunteer army leaning over a sprayer-less sink to get the job done. I don't know how Bridlemile does it every week (but kudos to them). Likely our school will do our best on this week's experiment/challenge then go back to throwing them away as usual, thankyouverymuch. You gotta pick your battles, right?
Truth be told, the work wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I washed solo and brought my iPod and likely embarrassed myself thoroughly by singing out loud to Hope for Haiti Now had anyone near the kitchen overheard my caterwauling. I washed about 150 trays in 40 minutes. I've got them bagged and ready for the foam recycling event this Saturday. Would I volunteer to do it again? Um. Don't think so.
Don't get me wrong. I hate the disposable foam trays. It's one of those poster child issues. How can a green city like Portland and its biggest school district buy and throw away (hold onto your hat, here) 3.9 million of these trays a year? But all this effort (and water) to wash and recycle styrofoam seems fairly pointless when we should be higher up in the Reduce/Reuse/Recycle hierarchy. Let's find a way to invest in durable trays (my pick would be stainless steel, if anyone's interested) and use water/energy efficient dishwashing machines to clean them (not the tree-hugging parents who already volunteer in the classrooms, helping kids read and learn math). Or here's a crazy thought: kids who eat hot lunch would bring their own stainless steel tray each day, slip it in a waterproof envelope and wash at home. Bring back the next day: no clean tray, no lunch. Sorry. That's crazy talk. I got carried away.
When I did unplug from my iPod, I had an interesting chat with our school's custodian, who'd much rather save the money spent on garbage from the voluminous daily milk cartons (that we used to be able to recycle, but now can't because they have to be rinsed, which we don't have the manpower for). The foam trays are so light and stackable, that they seem like a non-issue to him.
In any case, Portland Public Schools district has recently announced the pilot of durable lunch trays may be expanding from 17 to 68 schools. I hope they pick our school!! But I'm not going to hold my breath since there seems to be issues about not having the water hookup necessary for a dishwasher onsite.
As for the foam tray challenge, the collection event is this Saturday. I'll let you know how that goes. Now what to do about these dishwater hands...
Truth be told, the work wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I washed solo and brought my iPod and likely embarrassed myself thoroughly by singing out loud to Hope for Haiti Now had anyone near the kitchen overheard my caterwauling. I washed about 150 trays in 40 minutes. I've got them bagged and ready for the foam recycling event this Saturday. Would I volunteer to do it again? Um. Don't think so.
Don't get me wrong. I hate the disposable foam trays. It's one of those poster child issues. How can a green city like Portland and its biggest school district buy and throw away (hold onto your hat, here) 3.9 million of these trays a year? But all this effort (and water) to wash and recycle styrofoam seems fairly pointless when we should be higher up in the Reduce/Reuse/Recycle hierarchy. Let's find a way to invest in durable trays (my pick would be stainless steel, if anyone's interested) and use water/energy efficient dishwashing machines to clean them (not the tree-hugging parents who already volunteer in the classrooms, helping kids read and learn math). Or here's a crazy thought: kids who eat hot lunch would bring their own stainless steel tray each day, slip it in a waterproof envelope and wash at home. Bring back the next day: no clean tray, no lunch. Sorry. That's crazy talk. I got carried away.
When I did unplug from my iPod, I had an interesting chat with our school's custodian, who'd much rather save the money spent on garbage from the voluminous daily milk cartons (that we used to be able to recycle, but now can't because they have to be rinsed, which we don't have the manpower for). The foam trays are so light and stackable, that they seem like a non-issue to him.
In any case, Portland Public Schools district has recently announced the pilot of durable lunch trays may be expanding from 17 to 68 schools. I hope they pick our school!! But I'm not going to hold my breath since there seems to be issues about not having the water hookup necessary for a dishwasher onsite.
As for the foam tray challenge, the collection event is this Saturday. I'll let you know how that goes. Now what to do about these dishwater hands...
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