PIMS students help bring back plastic trays to cafeteria

14 years ago

PIMS students help bring back plastic trays to cafeteria

By Scott Mitchell Johnson

Staff Writer

PRESQUE ISLE — Styrofoam trays are now a thing of the past at Presque Isle Middle School as seventh-graders in Elaine Hendrickson’s English/social studies classes were successful in convincing administrators to revert back to plastic serving trays.

As part of a KIDS Consortium environmental service learning project, the students researched the “PIMS and the Plastic Tray Project.”

“Students were very concerned that the cafeteria was using Styrofoam to feed the kids food every day and they discovered that Styrofoam is not biodegradable and it just goes to the landfill and sits there forever,” said Hendrickson. “There’s also a toxin called styrene that leeches out into the soil that’s very dangerous. They felt that we should replace the Styrofoam with plastic trays.”

The students went to the cafeteria and counted the number of trays that were used each day.

“We used approximately 200 trays every day times 175 days of school,” said student Kassidy Voisine. “Styrofoam can’t biodegrade so when we put it in the landfill, it’s just going to stay there. It’s important that we use the plastic trays because we put 35,000 Styrofoam trays in the landfill a year. The plastic trays will make a huge difference.”

Voisine said she’s happy to have helped make her school “greener.”

“It’s cool to know that I helped bring about this change,” she said.

According to Kathy Allen, food services director for SAD 1, 204 plastic trays were recently ordered.

“I think it’s a good thing that we’re back to the real trays,” she said. “It saves the environment and is consistent with the other school patterns as they use plastic trays, as well. It’s also cost-effective because I don’t have to keep Styrofoam trays in stock. We’ll have to order some additional trays at some point to replace them as they get worn. It’s a good move for the environment, and I’m happy the kids spearheaded this.”

Money from the plastic trays came from a KIDS Consortium grant at no cost to the district.

Allen said to her knowledge, PIMS went away from plastic trays several years ago after hearing that the students didn’t want to eat off of something that somebody else had.

“They wanted to have a tray that only they use, so they got the Styrofoam ones and disposed of them,” she said. “The decision also might have had to do with a reduction in staff; if we didn’t have to wash the trays, we could do without a cafeteria worker.

“At that time when the switch was made, the cost of the foam trays was so small that it was a great savings,” said Allen. “I think that’s why the decision was made to go from plastic to Styrofoam.”

The plastic trays arrived in time to be used the last week of school.