New Rochelle’s schools received a grant to bring fresh and local food to our kids plate. All an effort to promote health and well being.
But on what kind of plate are we putting this “fresh and healthy local food”
On nothing less then the worst environmental offender and the most unhealthy plate/tray. On Styrofoam.
New York City is going forward with the proposed Styrofoam ban, and New Rochelle’s school district is not following.
Every day NYC public schools use and discard 850,000 Styrofoam trays for school meals. That’s a stack of trays over 2 miles high that goes into landfills or is incinerated, every single day.
New Rochelle discards about 8000 trays per day, which stacked up is about a 50 ft high stack.
As Mayor Bloomberg stated in his 2013 State of the City address: Styrofoam “is virtually impossible to recycle and never biodegrades.” (It’s also a major source of ocean pollution
(http://voices.yahoo.com/scientists-voice-growing-concern-styrofoam-pollution-4228621.html)).
Mayor Bloomberg also said, “It’s not just terrible for the environment. It’s terrible for taxpayers. Styrofoam increases the cost of recycling by as much as $20 per ton, because it has to be removed.” In addition to creating large voluminous mountains of garbage that need to be carted in heavy duty vehicles to dispose of them.
It is harmful to our children eating off of Styrofoam lunch trays because they leach toxic chemicals, including styrene and benzene, into hot foods and liquids
(http://www.earthresource.org/campaigns/capp/capp-styrofoam.html).
In 2011, Styrene – was added to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services “reasonably anticipated to be carcinogen” list, and Benzene is listed as a “known carcinogen.” That may be why Los Angeles County, the second largest school district in the nation, switched to compostable paper lunch trays in August 2012.
(http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/12/12/ban-polystyrene-foam-containers/1761145/)
If New Rochelle really wants to promote healthy food, the first step needs to be to remove Styrofoam trays from the menu!
Switching back to washable trays will have numerous advantages. Healthier for the kids, MUCH better for the environment, and saving the district money in the long run on reduced garbage and maintenance cost. It will be the ticket to shared garbage service with the city, thus saving over $500,000 on numerous Building and Ground expenditures.
