New Town Elementary School Sponsors Waste Free Lunch Day

New Town Elementary School is in Charlotte, NC... check out what they are doing in their cafeteria:

Each day, our cafeteria produces an average of 27 large trash bags filled with largely unnecessary waste. Plastic bags, paper bags, drink bottles and containers, wrappers and packages, plastic silverware and juice boxes, unopened food and leftovers. Hundreds of individually packaged items become trash each day. Our cafeteria currently generates 4860 bags of trash each school year, that’s 5.2 bags per child every year.
This year, we decided to make a difference!

A small change to our lunch packing habits can make a big difference to the annual landfill contribution made by our school.

After a preliminary audit we were amazed to find how much food was being thrown away untouched. Kids were throwing out unopened packs of chips, cookies, yogurts, cheese, milk cartons and even silverware – items which could be either returned home for use another day or some even donated to a local shelter or food bank.

Our cafeteria currently “loses” up to 200 forks a month – nearly four lengths of a football field of silverware, each year, just thrown into the trash rather than being returned to the counter for washing. This is a perfectly preventable, $50 a month expense and an unnecessary contribution to landfill.

We set out with two goals; to reduce the amount of trash that we produce and to teach the kids how and why along the way.

Our first Waste Free Lunch day was on October 21st 2009. We advertised our date using our school website, the kid’s agendas and the ConnectEd system. We set out photos and examples of how to pack a “Waste Free Lunch” around the school. We showed the kids how to use only reusable containers for their drink, sandwiches, snacks etc, how to bring a fabric napkin and to use reusable silverware instead of disposable.

The response from our New Town families and staff was FANTASTIC ! It was very exciting to see how many children had their lunches packed entirely in reusable containers – enabling them to create no waste at all for the day.

We composted leftovers, recycled plastic, donated unused food to a local women’s shelter and showed the kids where to put their forks. Our final trash count? 10 bags. 17 less bags of trash produced than an average day and a 63% saving!

Imagine, 3,060 less bags of trash every school year. Now that really would be making a difference!

Our next Waste Free Lunch Day is November 18
Our new goal: To make every day a Waste Free Day.

Thanks to the New Town PTA (www.newtownpta.org) for sharing this story with us!