By Theresa-Marie Wilson

At the end of most lunch periods at local elementary schools, cafeteria trashcans were often filled to capacity with serving trays that were used for about 20 minutes and later carted off to a landfill on garbage day.
Things have changed for the greener in the Lucia Mar Unified School District. Elementary school cafeteria lunches are no longer served on expanded polystyrene food containers, commonly known by the Dow Chemical trademark name Styrofoam or simply foam.
The middle schools and high schools have been using recyclable food containers for quite awhile.
“Right now we are using five-compartment trays that are 100 percent recyclable,” said Director of Purchasing of Food Service Cindy Naber. “Foam cups and other bowls have also been eliminated. If we are going to teach kids to be eco-friendly and green, we need to model that too.”
While the technology for recycling polystyrene is available, the market is very small, essentially making it non-recyclable.
About five years ago, when the district began looking into switching their cafeteria trays, the durable recyclable versions made from molded fiber were about three times as expensive as their foam counterparts.
“I believe, when we first started looking into it, they were 11 cents each,” Naber said. Now, they are down to a little less than 3 cents each. The cost is way better than it was five years ago. The bottom line is that is it more economical for us to go that route now. There are more products available and we were able to pull it off this year without adversely affecting our budget.”
The new trays do add about $15,000 annually to the budget, but that cost is expected to be made up for in garbage service savings.
The district’s annual usage of lunch trays and similar items comes in at about 550,000 units that previously helped clog landfills.
“It’s bigger than you think,” said Naber. “We really want to try to recycle as many things as we can. We will have less going out with the waste and it is cheaper to recycle.”
The district is currently hopes to move away from paperboard milk cartons that can’t be recycled because of the wax lining inside.
As for food waste, students are instructed to put uneaten portions into specific receptacles that will be transported to composting facilities, some of which are located on campuses in the district.
Decades ago when fish sticks, meatloaf, Salisbury steak, canned peas and carrots, cardboard pizza and syrupy canned fruits were cafeteria lunch staples with nary a salad bar in sight, food was served on reusable trays that were later washed and reused. That is not a practical option these days.
“It comes down to cost of labor,” Naber said. “If you were to think about our whole district to hand wash or even by using a dishwasher, the labor costs and the water costs are too high compared to getting a tray like this.”

Lucia Mar is joins a growing list of schools across the nation have gone foam-free in cafeterias.
The City of San Luis Obispo recently banned the use of expanded polystyrene food containers by businesses within city limits.