San Diego Unified
may serve up school meals on recycled lunch trays at its elementary schools this year. The school board is considering contracting with a company that would do the recycling for free. KPBS Reporter Ana Tintocalis has more.
Most egg cartons, meat trays and coffee cups are made out of
polystyrene foam
. The material is also made into lunch trays.
San Diego Unified officials say they go through 28 tons of these trays every year. Most end-up in the landfill.
Now the district is looking to collect the trays, chop them up, and make new trays out of the pellets.
The district's Gary Petill says says today's students are hip to recycling.
Petill:
They have to scrape their plates clean, stack their trays back into the same box that they came in. So children are learning about how to recycle and why its good for the environment.
Petill says its cheaper to use polystyrene foam trays and recycle them than to use hard plastic trays and wash them. This comes at the same time many fast food chains are moving away from polystyrene products because people are throwing them away rather than recycling them.
Ana Tintocalis, KPBS News.
