ban styrofoam lunch trays + school recycling news

pitu

really interesting segment on WNYC this am focused on schools practicing what they preach in terms of environmental responsibility

+ city schools using a shocking amount of styrofoam -- they stopped using it more than 10 years ago, but that cheap and very environmentally damaging styrofoam is back in heavy rotation.

+ the recycling that *doesn't* happen in city schools (the custodians union looks really bad in this one -- it's not in their contract so they're not doing it)

http://www.wnyc.org/shows/bl/episodes/2007/08/22
(they archive the audio online)

Waste and Recycling

Bill DeBlasio, Member of City Council (D-39th District-Park Slope, Kensington, Windsor Terrace, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Borough Park and Boerum Hill), wants to ban styrofoam lunch trays in public schools. And school teachers, students and custodians call in to talk about recycling in schools.

DeBlasio talked about how it was the parents at the Windsor Terrace grade school that took the lead in trying to get rid of obviously shoddy environmental practices, like over a million styrofoam trays in the system every year.

pitu

August 22, 2007, 11:11 am
A Call to Ban Foam Trays in Schools and Restaurants

By Sewell Chan

Updated, 6:10 p.m. | New York City’s public school system goes through 850,000 Styrofoam cafeteria trays a day, 4 million in a week and more than 153 million in a school year. As this blog and an accompanying video reported in June, Parents Against Styrofoam in Schools, a grass-roots group arising out of Public School 154 in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn, has called for limiting or ceasing the use of polystyrene, a petroleum-based material that can take centuries to decompose.

more here