Public colleges within the United States produce over 14,500 tons of waste daily. Each pupil utilizing a disposable lunch produces roughly 67 pounds of waste throughout a nine-month college 12 months, largely consisting of plastic utensils, straws, and luggage. Not solely does the heavy reliance on single-use plastics by U.S. college techniques present an irresponsible disregard for the damaging long-term well being implications these merchandise have on our nation’s kids and the setting, however it additionally causes monetary drawbacks to maintain up with correct waste administration.

Styrene is broadly used to make plastics and rubber, that are used to fabricate numerous merchandise, together with meals containers and lunch luggage. The National Toxicology Program listed styrene as a carcinogen identified to trigger human most cancers. Styrene is liable to leach into hot foods, probably inflicting extreme hurt to all college students who ingest something held in these merchandise. This harmful publicity to chemical compounds jeopardizes college students’ well being, discrediting public colleges’ profit-driven motives to proceed with single-use plastics. 

On high of significant well being repercussions, plastic utilization at public colleges negatively impacts college funds and budgeting as a result of increasingly assets are wanted to deal with the buildup of plastic waste. For instance, the County Solid Waste Bureau (SWB) concluded Arlington Public Schools’ recycling rate is estimated to be as little as 15% as they rely closely on trash disposals to cope with their plastic waste. 

Adopting waste-free practices will reduce vitality consumption, trash technology, and waste removing prices whereas defending kids from toxin publicity. Recycling might even enable public colleges to see vital savings in trash disposal prices, as recycling plastics is roughly 36% cheaper than waste assortment. 

Baltimore City public colleges have constructively modified mealtime practices by serving lunches on compostable trays as a substitute of Styrofoam merchandise. Proactively implementing these supplies, together with pushing for waste-free lunches with reusable gear, colleges can shield the protection of our kids and the setting by diminishing plastic use.

The time has come for extra public colleges to observe within the footsteps of Baltimore City. School techniques should acknowledge the detrimental penalties of single-use plastics and search efficient alternate options to finish the damaging cycle. Exercising eco-friendly approaches like initiating waste reduction programs or conducting a waste audit helps to lower trash disposal prices and successfully make the most of pure assets. 

EARTHDAY.ORG’s End Plastic Pollution marketing campaign informs individuals concerning the damaging penalties of unrecycled single-use plastic, encouraging everybody to hitch the combat towards this environmental disaster. Public colleges and oldsters can use our plastic calculator to estimate the variety of plastic merchandise they use and get rid of yearly. American public colleges ought to rethink their recycling habits and be a part of the marketing campaign efforts to guard kids’s well being, finally resulting in the gradual elimination of plastic air pollution.