To Students and Teachers:
CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT HOW TO EXPAND TRAYLESS TUESDAYS IN YOUR SCHOOL!!!!!!!
Start a REDUCE TRAY USE campaign in your school asap!
Make REDUCE TRAY USE posters for your cafeteria. Ask your principal if it is OK to hang these up in the cafeteria and hallways. Ask for permission to speak at the beginning of each lunch period to explain to your fellow students why it is so important to think about every single tray we use. Tell them that NYC throws away 4 million trays per week!
If students are buying one wrapped item and a drink, encourage them not to use a tray. You can also encourage recycling of drink containers in the cafeteria as well as suggest to students who bring "bag" lunches to use only reusable containers, no disposables. NYC makes 12,000 tons of trash per day!
Find out how many trays your school uses per day. Document your school’s progress.
Ask your principal if you can document the amount of cafeteria trash. See if your school cafeteria is disposing of fewer trash bags per day or week by asking the custodian to help you keep track. Ask the cafeteria manager at the end of each week if they are using less Styrofoam trays. We will be so happy to publicize your results on our website so other students can find out about it!
Build a sculpture out of USED Styrofoam trays and display it!
Ask your art teacher if you can build a sculpture out of used trays (you will need to wash them first). Try to construct the sculpture in a prominent place so that everyone in the school starts to think about the amount of Styrofoam waste we make!
Ask a local retail store if you can exhibit the sculpture in their store window!
check out Styrofoam (Used) Tray Project: No Tray Left Behind
Talk to your PTA
Ask your parents if you can go to the next PTA meeting and ask parents to help! The students at PS 11 in Chelsea recently convinced their PTA to raise money to cover the cost of switching from Styrofoam trays to biodegradable trays, made of 85% sugar cane leaves. We have the steps posted on our site.
PLEASE TAKE PHOTOS of your REDUCE signs and whatever else you create and send them to us at info@SOSnyc.org!
We would like to post your work on our web site and show the DOE School Food office what you are doing!
Write letters to the Mayor and your City Council Representative, include photos and any documentation of trash reduction!
Mayor Bloomberg needs to know that you care about getting rid of Styrofoam in your school.
click here to find your City Council Member
FLIP_TAP_STACK your trays
Reducing plastic bag use SAVES NYC MONEY and reduces the environmental impact of our daily cafeteria landfill bound garbage.
Flip-tap-stack reduces the number of plastic garbage bags used by more than half! Multiply this times 180 school days per year time, and times 1600 schools in NYC!
If your school throws out 8 bags of cafeteria trash per day, that adds up to 1,440 plastic bags per year. Our millions of school lunch, non-biodegradable plastic garbage, sit in landfills, taking many years to decompose. Plastic bags are made from petroleum, a nonrenewable resource, increasing our dependency on oil. Petroleum requires drilling, contributing to the destruction of fragile habitats, threatening our valuable natural resources.
Multiply 1,440 bags per year times 1200 (number of NYC DoE school cafeterias) and that adds up to 1,728,000 bags per year in NYC! Cut that in half and you get 864,000.
Recycle all your drink containers and "clean and dry" paper boats, crushing the drink containers and flip-tap-stack-ing the paper boats to further reduce plastic bag use.
Reduce green house gas emissions
Flap -tap-stack reduces the "idling" time of garbage trucks and all the other vehicles waiting behind that truck
Large polluting garbage trucks pick up garbage at all our schools. If we cut the number of trash bags on the curbside in half, garbage trucks idle for less time while bags are loaded! Multiply this reduction of idling minutes time 1200 school buildings, and this is a significant reduction in air pollution per day.
Next, add all the cars waiting behind the garbage truck, also idling while the trash is loaded into trucks. Sometimes, as many as 10 cars are waiting behind a garbage truck. Imagine that amount of reduced, vehicle caused pollution, multiplied by 1200 stops per day.
Food Waste
Ask your principal to start composting at your school
Hopefully, someday very soon, more schools will be composting their food waste! Food waste accounts for much of the methane produced in landfills, contributing to climate change.
Flip-tap-stack provides an excellent opportunity to educate students on the shocking amount of food waste generated every day in the US.
It is estimated that 40% of the food produced in America is wasted; it amounts to 1400 calories per person every day. According to the EPA, 31 million tons is thrown into landfills. Much of that produces methane as it rots; the gas is 25 times more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. (Treehugger www.treehugger.com/files/2010/03/the-impact-of-food-waste.php)
Sugar cane (Bagasse) pulp trays
How to order Bagasse 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 per 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
