1 Contact you City Council Member

Click Here to locate your City Council Member

Ask you City Council Member and the Mayor to:

1. Eliminate the use of polystyrene in all NYC DoE schools.
   
   
2. Provide financial support for the piloting of alternative food service ware products and closed system solutions.
   
   
3. Call for inter-agency support of such pilots.
   
   
4. Call for an official REDUCE POLICY and philosophy throughout all school cafeterias and government buildings.
   
   
5. Consider the Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) of food service ware in NYC DoE sourcing and contracting; acknowledge the “true cost” of products by accounting for the environmental impact of manufacturing, transport, and disposal.

Trayless Tuesdays have been enacted in all 1,500 NYC public schools. By not using Styrofoam trays on Tuesdays, the DoE has reduced Styrofoam tray use by 600,000 trays per week! We are delighted that the DOE recognizes that serving food on polystyrene is wrong.

We are still left with 3,400,000 trays PER WEEK that will continue to fill up our landfills.
Styrofoam is bad for our kids' health and the environment.

Styrofoam has been linked to obesity, premature puberty, neurological problems such as headaches, nervousness and fatigue, and endocrine related cancers. Styrene migrates from the tray into the food. The rate of migration depends partially on the fat content of the food—the higher the fat content, the higher the migration into the food. Many of our kids bypass the migration issue and just eat the styrene by scraping the Styrofoam trays clean with their plastic forks.

Polystyrene can remain intact for hundreds of years before decomposing. The trays take up a disproportionate amount of space in our landfills and they are not commercially viable to recycle. Due to the light weight of polystyrene, it is easily airborne and waterborne, and often ends up as litter. Polystyrene is one of the primary components of marine debris, and can be harmful to birds and marine mammals.

Let's protect our children and our environment.
We demand that city agencies work together to completely eliminate Styrofoam tray use and to develop healthy and sustainable alternatives.

Click Here to locate your City Council Member
Click Here for Sample Letter

2 Expand Trayless Tuesdays to Trayless Tuesdays, Fridays & Breakfast in your School
Click Here to find out how

3 Sign Up for our Mailing List

4 Pass our info along to all your friends

5 Impatient For Change?
Look into the possibility of composting at your school

Schools with composting can purchase compostable trays that provide a safer, more environmentally friendly alternative for your children.
Set up an appointment with your School Food Regional Director.
Contact Office of School Food at (718) 707-4300 to find out who your Regional Manager is.

Check our blog for updates on cafeteria on waste reduction, recycling, composting and more!
sosnyc.wordpress.com

Visit our new companion site for resources such as how-to-guides, flyers, curriculum, and more
cafeteriaculture.org

Ask your principal about allowing parents to provide reusable trays
(similar to messkits) for their children.

The trays would come in bags. Children would carry them in their backpacks and bring them home to wash.

Schools with composting can purchase compostable trays that provide a safer, more environmentally friendly alternative for your children.
Set up an appointment with your School Food Regional Director.
Contact Office of School Food at (718) 707-4300 to find out who your Regional Manager is.

How to order sugar cane (Bagasse) pulp trays from NYC DoE Office of SchoolFood
Currently, the NYC Department of Sanitation does not have the capability to compost trays (or any other compostable packaging or food waste). SOS supports the use of compostable trays when schools are willing to work towards finding composting solutions, as opposed to sending the trays to landfills.

Modern landfills are designed to preserve their contents, rather than transforming them to humus or mulch. When compostable trays (such as Bagasse or sugar cane) and other compostables (like paper and food waste) are sent to landfills, they decompose anaerobically, without oxygen, creating methane and contributing to climate change. They do not break down the way they would in a compost pile!
For more information, see Cool 2012- Compostable Organics Out of Landfills 2012.

SOS is working is facilitating pilot programs of additional alternative solutions.
Please subscribe to our blog for updates.

The school pays the difference between the Styrofoam tray and the sugar cane tray.
$6.51/ 250 for Styrofoam trays vs. pulp trays $14.89 250/case.

Effective July 2010 the new price is $8.38 per case of sugar cane pulp trays.
$14.89 – $6.51 = $8.38

Orders must be by case.

There are two methods of payment:

1. The school can send a check made out to the Office of School Food and Nutrition Services in the amount of cases requested, prepayment is required.

NYC Department of Education
Office of School Food and Nutrition Services
44-36 Vernon Boulevard,
Long Island City, NY 11101

Attention: Stephen O'Brien, Director of Food and Food Support, Room 415

2. Schools can submit a purchase order. If the school enters a PO they need to contact Larry Weintraub, Office of SchoolFood 718-707-4370 or at LWeintraub@schools.nyc.gov before processing the purchase order.

SchoolFood will deliver the trays within a week of the check being processed.

If you have any questions, please call: 718-707-4367