Recycling is one of many things your school should do to support a healthy environment. You may wish to investigate programs that guide schools in environmental practices.
- Green Ribbon Schools – visit http://www.eirc.org/website/programs-services/2014-green-ribbon-schools-home/. This framework helps a school measure the resources it uses, and identify the positive practices it has adopted or could adopt.
- Eco-Schools – visit http://www.nwf.org/Eco-Schools-USA.aspx. The National Wildlife Federation developed this program, and has named New Jersey Audubon as its state affiliate. If you’d like to take part, email jennifer.dowd@njaudubon.org.
- Project Learning Tree’s GreenSchools! – visit http://www.plt.org/greenschools. PLT is a joint project of the American Forest Foundation in collaboration with EPA. In New Jersey, it operates out of the Forest Resource Education Center. To take part, contact Lindsay Harrington at (732) 833-9816 or newjerseyplt@gmail.com
Styrofoam, everyone’s least favorite material
Is it bad to use disposable Styrofoam lunch trays? Yes, but you probably can’t do the good thing, which is to cook the lunches in the school and serve them on real plates on permanent plastic trays. Most schools don’t have kitchens like that. But if your vendor brings in lunches on throw-away trays, it doesn’t matter if you use paper or Styrofoam. Both get dirty with food, and no one wants to recycle either one. Neither one decays in landfills. Paper trays require more energy in manufacture, and they require a lot of clean water. Polystyrene requires less energy and no water, and it crushes smaller in landfills.