Frequently Asked Questions 

As of September 2015 NYC, along with LA, Chicago, Miami-Dade, Dallas and Orlando public schools have eliminated the use of all school food foam trays and replaced them with compostable plates!

In July 2015, New York City’s citywide styrofoam ban went into effect.

We hear from many schools and districts across the U.S., who would like to eliminate the use of styrofoam in their schools but, the cost of an alternative plate or tray is still too costly. 

The continued use of plastic foam trays in any school sends an erroneous message to the school community that single use disposables are acceptable. This contradicts school efforts to embrace waste reduction, increase recycling rates, and to shift people’s habits for the sake of reducing green house gas emissions and thus mitigating climate change.

​Plastic foam is cheap! At approximately 3.5 cents per tray, the upfront cost makes it difficult to find “cost neutral” alternatives. With the total school lunch expenditure per child hovering at an insufficient rate of just above 1 dollar per meal, it is difficult for many school food service directors to justify a price hike for trays. The long-term environmental and health costs of manufacturing, using, and disposal of plastic foam trays, however, are not reflected in that 3.5-cents per tray cost. 

The Urban School Food Alliance, a non-profit organization, was founded to use the combined purchasing power of the 6 largest U.S. urban school districts to drive down cost and improve the quality of school food “while incorporating sound environmental practices.”

The concept of collective purchasing with other school districts with similar infrastructure is worth exploring. 

The first step taken by New York City schools was to implement TRAYLESS TUESDAYS citywide. This immediately reduced the amount of styrene foam tray use by 20%.

We don’t want to create new problems while trying to solve old ones! It is important to consider all environmental and health impacts of each alternative solution, or the Life Cycle Analysis (LCA). This includes use of raw and non-renewable resources, byproducts created by manufacturing, transport of product, raw materials, and waste products, corporate social responsibility (CSR- workers’ conditions), and the cost of disposal, versus recycling or composting.

Serving school food on reusable plates may still be the best option for some school districts, depending on water issues, energy cost (schools may be required to wash dishes at 180 degrees),  and overall cost of switching back to reusables (i.e., wether or not the schools have working dishwashers installed, as well as plumbing to accommodate dishwashers).

Many great compostable and recyclable trays exist, but they are still more expensive than styrene foam. Schools and school districts need the support systems to make alternatives a viable solution. As foam bans increase across the globe,  manufacturing trends are shifting and the price of alternative school food trays and plates is decreasing. 

The co-purchasing agreement of the 6 largest urban school districts will likely spur competition and inspire product innovation among manufacturers of compostable food service ware.

By continuing to leverage the enormous co-purchasing power of the  6 cities, the Urban School Food Alliance has tremendous potential to shift additional positive national trends in school food service.

If your school is still using styrene foam trays, talk to your School Food Manager and to your School Principal. Find out if your school or district has plans to change soon.

Next, talk to your Parent Association. Find allies! Present to your School Board. Start a campaign. Call your elected officials. Build a giant installation or giant puppet with used and washed styrene foam trays, so people so can see what your trash actually looks like when it is amassed. Take videos and photos and share with your local press!

Find out what it costs to haul your school garbage away. Who actually picks up your garbage and who pays for it to be carted away and disposed of? Where does your garbage actually go to? Most of us have no idea. Contact the community located near to the landfill and incinerator and see what they have to say about living with the remains of your community’s/school’s garbage.

The chemical styrene, a major component of styrene foam (or polystyrene) food containers, has been categorized as a “reasonably anticipated to be carcinogen” by the US Department of Health and Human Services. Styrene is toxic and polluting from start to ongoing.

Polystyrene is also made of petroleum, a non-sustainable and heavy polluting resource.

Due its light-weight nature, polystyrene can easily escape garbage containers and often ends up as litter. Polystyrene is a primary component of marine debris, (particularly in NYC, which is surrounded by water). It breaks down into and smaller and smaller pieces and birds and marine mammals mistake these pieces for food.

It is estimated that we now have a staggering 270 million metric tons of PLASTIC MARINE POLLUTION, degrading into bits in all of our waterways and penetrating our marine food chain. PLASTIC POLLUTION is eaten by marine animals, blocking their intestines and starving them to death!

After a typical usage time of about 30 minutes, polystyrene food containers, whether incinerated, landfilled, littered, or even recycled, will leave a toxic trail of  styrene particles which have a life expectancy of forever.
Learn more here->

Children eat school food directly off of these polystyrene trays, a petroleum-based product composed of the chemicals benzene and styrene. Some children enjoy scraping their trays with sporks, possibly ingesting the chemical styrene. In 2011, US federal health regulators declared that styrene, a component of polystyrene, is “reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen.”

“As Environmental Pediatricians at Mount Sinai Children’s Environmental Health Center, we support the SOS campaign to reduce use of styrofoam trays.”
– Dr. Perry Elizabeth Sheffield, MD, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, quote for STYROFOAM OUT OF SCHOOLS

Trayless Tuesdays in NYCwas a cost neutral initiative to eliminate 20% of styrene foam trays. It was implemented citywide in March 2010. After 5 years, this initiative alone has eliminated over 100,000 million styrene foam trays from student lunches, landfills and incinerators.

On Tuesdays, paper boats have been used in lieu of the plastic foam trays in all public schools in NYC,. Trayless Tuesdays is the centerpiece of CafCu’s campaign, Styrofoam Out of Schools (SOS), which asked NYC Department of Education (DoE) to reduce plastic foam tray use by 20% in 2010. DoE SchoolFood implemented Trayless Tuesdays in less than a year’s time by collaborating with CafCu and Parsons the New School. 

Luckily, the DoE was already contracting these paper boats, allowing for a quick transition. DoE SchoolFood adjusted Tuesday’s menu to accommodate the paper boats by serving non-saucy food, such as sandwiches. If the used paper boats are “clean and dry,” they can be recycled. Because of Trayless Tuesdays, 2.4 million plastic foam trays per month have been diverted from landfills(DoE press release). 
Thank you DoE SchoolFood!

Learn more: Trayless Tuesdays

Many schools are now using the paper boats for pizza Fridays, breakfast every day, and for other non–saucy meals. Keep in mind that paper boats are not appropriate for all menu items, such as pasta and sauce. Also, many kids like the compartmentalized aspect of the tray, which keep sauces from mixing. CafCu wholeheartedly supports the underlying mission of SchoolFood: assuring that ALL children in NYC public schools have access to food (many children are dependent on 3 meals per school day, provided by DoE SchoolFood). We all should promote the accessibility of school food for the children who need it.  

Learn More: Trayless Tuesdays

Almost 80% of NYC’s 860,000 school meals served per day are free or reduced because of low family income, a harsh reminder that a significant proportion of NYC’s public school students are dependent on school meals as a vital nutritional source (City Harvest). For some children, school food may be the only complete meals they eat. 

Cafeteria Culture supports the use of compostable trays when schools and municipalities are willing to work towards finding composting and recycling solutions, as opposed to sending 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! 

Keep in mind that it commonly takes “baby steps” to reach a goal. Implementing small steps towards zero waste change should not be underestimated. Many people have a difficult time envisioning any change at all. Implementing TRAYLESS TUESDAYS, for example, helps everyone in the cafeteria to take notice of the amount of garbage amassed on the other days of the week. This alone can spark school-wide support for change.

Learn More: Compostable Organics Out of Landfills 2012

About 30-some NYC schools were able to self-fund the extra cost for purchasing biodegradable sugarcane pulp trays thru an arrangement made with NYC’s office of SchoolFood. The cost then was about 3 cents more per tray, which is prohibitive for most public schools (even with the use of paper boats for almost half the meals served).

While there are serious equity issues to be considered by allowing public schools that have the funding to self-fund a healthier option, such an  initiative can seriously contribute to a district wide decision to completely eliminate styrene foam tray from all schools.

In 2011, Cafeteria Culture/SOS suggested to PS 89 Liberty School  in Battery Park- NYC to pilot a  partnership with a farm for the ”back-hauling” of the school’s compostable trays, i.e., taking used trays back to the farm in their already in-the neighborhood, returning, almost empty truck. The school’s dedicated parent green team took the idea and made it a reality! The school also won a Golden Apple Award for this fantastic achievement.

Now, PS 89, along with 700+ NYC public schools participate in the NYC School Organics Collection program, (aka, composting pick up).

School partnerships with local farms, universities, and businesses may provide new possibilities for composting of plates and food scraps if your district is not yet composting.

On site In-vessel composters or digesters are also an option for some schools and school districts.

Starting a school composting bin, no matter how large or small, is an excellent way to inspire students to reduce their waste! Some schools start with simply collecting fruit scraps at the end of each lunch period.

Recyclable paper or paper pulp trays are an option, if manufactured with post consumer or pre-consumer waste. A paper tray would need an appropriate food barrier or liner and FDA approval. Paper must be kept clean enough to be recyclable in most paper recycling plants. Check with your local government to find out who is contracted to recycle your school’s paper. 

Unfortunately, we do not know of any definitive study that answers this question. 

Styrene, a possible human carcinogen, may leach from plastic foam food containers into hot and acidic foods. Children may be ingesting styrene via hot school lunch, especially if they enjoy scraping their tray with their spork, as we have witnessed many young students doing.

Plastic foam food packaging is still so commonly used that, culturally, we may tend to accept it as safe, as with many other commonly used products containing chemicals. In 2001,  US Senators Frank Lautenberg (NJ), Schumer (NY), and others introduced the Safe Chemicals Act 2011 legislation  in order to upgrade our outdated system of monitoring chemicals in the US.  

​Children are particularly vulnerable to environmental chemical exposure. Without sufficient research, we are safer not serving food to our children on any questionable food surface.