Sugar Cane Cafeteria Trays
May 4, 2009
Hi everyone – thanks for the feedback. I followed up on Jennifer’s question about recyclable cafeteria trays and here’s what I came up with:
We offer schools the option of using cafeteria trays made of sugar cane. These trays are fully biodegradable and break down within 45 days in a landfill. They’re good for the environment and reduce waste, so why don’t we use them all over?
Here’s the catch – the trays cost $.03 more per tray than the classic polystyrene tray. This doesn’t sound like much, but multiplied by the number of trays our schools use, this adds up very quickly.
So, like a lot of decisions, we leave this in the hands of principals; individual schools can choose to pay the additional cost to serve food on sugar cane trays.
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Our PTA has just decided to fund pulp trays at PS11 as it was an initiative of our student council. We are now focused on the second step: composting those trays. Our hope is to piggyback on a local business in the neighborhood already hiring a composting company, or to find a sponsor to help offset this additional (and substantial) cost. It ain’t easy being green, but it’s worth it to us, and to our kids.
I forgot to mention in the original post that some schools are using PTA money or other private funds to help make up the cost. –Greg
Why can’t we go back to the old reusable plastic trays that need to be washed? Then we don’t have to worry about biodegradeable anything, just recycling broken plastic trays. Too easy? or too Hard?
That would be more cost-efficient, however, there is the question, is it the most sanitary? Staff try very hard to keep everything clean but they also must be time-efficient. We’ve all been in the cafeteria at its peek time. Time is of the essence. I say yes, to “green” trays. It’s more sanitary, doesn’t require time to clean and can break down quickly. If costs can be absorbed by raising funds or getting a local sponsor, then go for it.
what difference does it make if the trays are biodegradable when the thick plastic garbage bags they are thrown into aren’t.
I would have to agree with Mariann, the washable trays would be best. It would be a cost, but worth it to install industrial dish washers if they are not already in schools. The bamboo trays will not biodegrade in 45 days if the conditions are not ideal. There must be a better solution.
Hi, my name is Helen Greenberg. I’m a parent at East Village Community School. I spear-headed the effort at the first school in NYC to stop using Styrofoam lunch trays. I worked with Children’s Workshop and P94 because we all share the building. We proved to be a successful team! (860,000 Styrofoam trays are dumped in our landfills EVERYDAY.)
Here are the steps we took to get rid of the Styrofoam.
1) Spoke to Stephen O’Brien our regional School/Food Director letting him know we wanted Styrofoam trays gone.
2) Wrote a letter to Executive Director David Berkowitz of School/foods explaining why we wanted the trays gone. Also talked about the health hazards of eating hot food on the plastic trays and families’ concerns. It’s important to stress that no one wants to be sued. (David Berkowitz is no longer there- so you have to find out who is in charge.) Do you guys have a wellness committee where you meet monthly with your SchoolFood director and talk about your food? You can have students come to discuss what they like and don’t like. Look on the web for Wellness Committee info. Every school should have one by law. If you don’t just start one and call School Food to set up an appointment with your regional director.
3) Our school shares the lunch room with two other schools. We had to have the go ahead from all three principals saying ‘yes’ to this.
4) School Foods figures out how many trays you use a month and figures out the difference in cost to replace the Styrofoam trays. The pulp trays are double the price of Styrofoam. Our monthly bill for all three schools is $360, payable to School Foods. We have about 500 students in all three schools. We figured out the percentage what each school will be responsible for. The schools figure out which PTA group will cut the monthly check. Each school signed an agreement to each other saying we are committed to the amount for the year. We made a one-year contract and will recalculate in the fall what our percentages are.
5) APPCO Paper Supplier- Richard is the contact. (516) 608-9200 He has been amazing! School Foods does all the ordering. It takes about 4 – 6 weeks for the change over. The trays are the SUNSHINE 5 made from ONLY sugarcane and water. They can be thrown into the garbage and will break down in 60 -80 days depending on the circumstances.
6)Sanitation department will not recycle them with the milk cartons as they aren’t paper.
7) In the meantime, I have a composting service that will do a free week of pick up and tell us how much it will cost us to do that long term. We have to teach the kids about tapping the trays clean and separating the plastic spoons, too. Action Carting Company Damiion Emmolo 973 623-7600
http://www.ActionCarting.com
8) Our school (East Village Community) is funding this project through Pop Corn Fridays. We sell organic popcorn with fun toppings – all organic no butter or sugar. One dollar a bag. For now I’ve been using my popcorn maker. A real popcorn machine is coming this week. The machine costs $450 dollars and it uses a small amount of oil. The machine was donated. I bought the machine through a former PTA Pres of Neighborhood school in NYC Kim (212) 614-0716. I buy the popcorn bags at Great River Restaurant Supply Inc, 29 Allen Street, NYC (212) 941-6688. They come in packages of 500 and the size is small. They cost $6.75. The popcorn is $1.29 a pound – I use about 6 – 8lbs a week.
9) I have to say everyone at School Foods has been great to work with. Stephen O’Brien has been so supportive! Good Luck and spread the word to all the schools- Lets get Styrofoam out of the the schools!
10) This should be simple to do. The blue print is in place!
Helen Greenberg (East Village mom)
please check our new website(still in Progress)
http://www.SOSnyc.org (STYROFOAM OUT OF SCHOOLS) We will be holding a rally at City Hall in June! Stay tuned for more info!
PS
Other “green” things our school has done. Every child in our school has a Klean Kanteen water bottle. They are stainless steel they cost $8.25 wholesale. For families that couldn’t afford the bottle we raised the money with popcorn sales. No more plastic water bottles!
Spread the word!
Wow! Thanks for all of those tips, Helen. Keep in touch so we can collaborate. –Greg
Helen!
My name is Julie Corbalis and I teach Environmental Action at Manhattan East in East Harlem. Your list above is exactly what I have been looking for in order to figure out how to transition from styrofoam to biodegradable trays – THANKS SO MUCH!
Regarding the extra 3 cents. We are hoping to start a campaign for using fewer trays. Especially for high school kids that just grab a sandwich and drink. They don’t need a tray for that. So I think the money is already there for the trays once the campaign for using fewer trays are in place.
Why can’t we have cardboard trays or good old paper bags for the lunch? When the kids are going on a trip that is where there lunch is packed
Hi Helen,
Bravo for these efforts and sharing. I hope that many read this and try to replicate efforts at their own schools!
Use the link below to learn about the success of The Childrens Workshop School, The East Village Community School and PS 94 whose collaborative effort replaced styrofoam with sugarcane trays throughout the building!
http://schools.nyc.gov/NR/rdonlyres/334E9D53-B7A5-44D1-A9F0-AB15917C48CD/60357/tray20press20release200409.pdf
[...] Sugar Cane Cafeteria Trays (Going Green in NYC’s Public Schools) [...]
I don’t understand why the Board of Education under the guidance of Mayor Bloomberg and his Green NYC plan aren’t able to work out a deal with the manufacturer of biodegradable lunch trays since they will be buying them in bulk and it would be a great contract for some environmentally friendly company to score.
Everyone should join in this worthy campaign, since it is the future of the world that is effected. I have been trying to reach ISC in order to promote this worthy cause. Although more expensive, in the long run, we will all benefit! I would be happy to give up my Secretary’s Choice check if the money were used for changing the styrofoam trays in the school. Every day over 1,200 hundred trays are used and this adds to the landfills – they are not biodegradable and contribute to global warming in a big way.
Global Recycling Group operates a Styrofoam recycling plant in Queens NY 11434 near JFK Airport.Our company works with school in New York City to recycle all Styrofoam lunch trays & other grades of Styrofoam material at no cost.If you would like more information on Recycling your schools Styrofoam material.Feel free to contact us @ 718-864-7753 or globalrecyclinggroup@yahoo.com
Please past this program to other teachers, students & schools
HELP US KEEP OUR SCHOOLS CLEAN.
I just want to add that we should check out where the sugar cane is coming from to, as there has been a history of human rights abuses that have so famously afflicted that industry. In other words, we should make sure that there is no “modern day slavery” involved in the processing of the sugar cane that goes into making these trays. Otherwise, i think that this is the way to go…
Greetings
We don’t want our kids eating off of a petroleum product that is linked to so many illnesses. We also want our polar bears around. Just visit the Natural History Museum exhibit on Climate Control and see how the production of Styrofoam harms our environment. Not to mention the harm the workers are exposed to during the production of the Styrofoam. The product should be banned like it is in over 300 cities across the United Stated
Thank you all for such a great response to my concerns, it is good to know that people are looking for alternatives. Sadly, I’m afraid this kind of initiative really should come from the DOE so that individual schools do not have to spend so much time and energy investigating. TIme that should be spent trying to educate our students. Not only should it come directly from the DOE/city, a green alternative should be mandatory, not by choice. Pick the best, most cost effective, green method and just do it!!!!
This sort of initiative *is* coming from us, Jennifer. As for making this shift mandatory, it’d be great if all schools used green trays, but as I outlined above, they cost significantly more than the standard tray.
I think using sugar cane trays in the public schools would be great. We need to educate our students.and public officals.
Hi.
I am a grade 7/8 science and math teacher at the Ella Baker School in Manhattan. Our school shares the building with 6 other schools and we all have the same cafeteria. It does have a salad bar but the kids only touch the really fried greasy stuff they are handed to first, while the salad bar is way at the end and is self serve. Their plates are filled with the fatty foods before they reach the salad bar and hence, never touch it. How would I go about changing the food and Styrofoam served in our cafeteria?
I came across this blog and was amazed by the innovative techniques schools are using in order to raise money and fund the switch to biodegradable trays. New York City public schools are years ahead of Connecticut public schools.
My company is based in CT, however we work with schools nationally. I would be interested in talking with a few school representatives and seeing if a group purchase agreement could be made to eliminate the 3 cent difference and make the trays available to all schools no matter their size. If this is of interest to anyone please feel free to contact me directly at: 860-402-7377, by email, christian.coughlin@mygreensupply.com, or via my website, http://www.mygreensupply.com.