NYC School Breakfast by Runs With Scissors on Flickr.
Although Mayor Bloomberg has sought to new ways to make New York the “green” apple, the Department of Education continues to rot the barrel with the 850,000 Styrofoam food trays tossed by the school system every single school day. In an effort to mitigate the environmental impact of these trays, which will take about 10,000 years to break down, P.S. 154 in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn became the first in New York City to renounce Styrofoam.
Lunch ladies will now spoon the Tater Tots and fruit cocktail into eco-friendly trays composed of the pressed sugarcane pulp called bagasse. The material is what is left over after a sugarcane stalk has been crushed to remove its juices, and has been used as bio-fuel in the past and can also be molded into the form of trays and food containers. In contrast to Styrofoam, the bagasse trays take about 45 days to break down and can be composted.
Alas, the DOE has refused to provide any kind of support for this venture, so the program at P.S. 154 has been privately supported by Brooklyn Industries and a wine store called Juice Box. The DOE has no plans to switch city schools from Styrofoam trays anytime soon; Styrofoam is 33% cheaper than bagasse.
