What would be a good replacement for styrofoam trays?

Question

I would like to find a alternate form of our now styrofoam trays at school.

They would obviously need to be cheap in cost but something that could also be recycled. :]

Answer 1

If you cannot buy reusable trays for students - ask a company like DISNEY to buy them for you or someone. Try looking for grants.

If its because you can not wash them for some reason - try biodegradable trays, shop around online under biodegradable.

Do a cost comparison over the year which saves you more money?

Other money and good for the planet saving ideas:

In Sacramento County some schools are getting gardens, start a compost area, too. The biodegradable stuff needs to go into the earth not landfills to degrade.

Your gardeners, the cafeteria food not consumed could all supply you resources for your compost pile, instead of adding the food to garbage landfills. Wash out the garbage liners and re-use them, ask the county or whoever picks up your garbabe/recycling if your even doing it right. Contianers, trays with food or drink in them needs, to be clean to be recyled here. Try Master Gardeners for free advice, for composting: cesacramento.ucdavis.edu or  916-875-6913.

There is eco-friendly dish detergent available, in big containers too.

Also, does your district need craft supplies or cheaper craft ideas and decorations, toilet paper rolls can be used do a net search of toilet paper rolls.  Buy recyled products helps the recylcing industry. I have found they are cheaper these days, like file folders.

Switch to 'ShammyWow' instead of paper towels and sponges or natural scrub brushes, hang dry things intead of using driers. Some counties and cities have water recycling programs and gray-water water with soap and dirt and can used to water landscaping and playground grass. National Geographic said its good to raise the lawn mowers height to the highest cutting to help the grass and we will need less water to water it, too.

Buy waterless car-wash cleaner and see if you can raise money for school supplies by having a car wash.  

Answer 2

How about washable plates?  

Answer 3

Many schools switched to syrofoam over the traditional reuseable plastic trays and plates to conserve water, completely ignoring the impact on both landfills and more importantly to you immediately, your health. Styrofoam can leach into your food. If they put anything oily on your tray, you've probably noticed what it does.

Other schools have faced this problem, and I've pulled a couple links on the topic for you. There are aternative materials that the trays can be made of, one in the articles, used trays made of a sugar cane substance called bagasse. It sounds as if Bagasse might not be the heartiest material to make a tray out of, and may degrade even as you eat off of it, but the good news is rather then eating plastic, it's just plant fiber. I've included a link to a company that makes the trays as well, they offer a school and non profit discount. They recommend composting the trays though. This might make for an interesting school project, starting a school composting program complete with new trays. If there is a gardening or environmental club, they might have an interest in this. A biology or chemistry teacher may also be helpful.

I included an interesting link to a new product on the earthfirst website, problem is, it goes back to the old washing method.

One thing to keep in mind, is that their choice to use styrofoam is likely largely economical. Bagasse or cornstarch based trays will likely cost more per tray. To create a good argument for the use of something more expensive, I would recommend emphasizing the cost of health as well as the environmental impact.  

Answer 4

Your first two answers suggested both regular plates and plastic trays, which have hit on the problem.

Years ago plastic trays were used by schools and cafeterias. These were washed (as are regular plates). I believe that stryo started to be used because of the costs that goes along with washing plastic trays: hot water, soap, scrubbers, machines to do the washing, other machines to do the drying, repairs to the equipment, the sorting of the trays, the stacking of the trays for reuse..and the cost of employees to do all of this. Bottom line it is was cheaper to just use styro. Now, I don't know one way or the other, but the wastes (water, soap, sewage treatment, wash cloths, etc.) for washing may be greater than the costs of the styro wastes.

Answer 5

washable plastic trays or washable plates would be good.

Thanks for making your school a more environmentally friendly place to be!  

Answer 6

There are many plant starch items that replace styrofoam. I've seen plates and flatware made from corn starch as well as to go type containers. I would think there would be sectioned trays available as well.  

Answer 7

There are two option. You can either adopt the plastic lunch tray, which are washed and resused, or you can go for a new product on the market-corn based disposables. Cups, cutlery, and trays are all on the market which are made from corn. They have the durability of plastic, can be thrown away, are very cheap and biodegrade!

I use a variety of these products at my house for BBQ's and out door movie nights that I hold for the neighborhood. We compost everything we can, including these and they break down really easily, yet are very durable during use.  

Answer 8

Well, what we do at our school is get lunches on plastic trays that are reused every day, kind of like the trays that you get your food on at a McDonald's.