As easy as 1-2-3

Bringing reuse to school cafeterias seems like a no-brainer: it’s a closed-loop system, a great educational tool for students that also helps protect their health, and it saves precious school time and resources spent on procurement. But of course, introducing a new system is never simple. One prominent concern we have heard in our conversations with stakeholders is the high loss rate of reusables, particularly utensils. It can be easy for students to inadvertently toss small pieces of silverware into the garbage when they are hastily finishing up their lunch and reporting to recess or back to class. 

Fortunately, Clean Water Action’s ReThink Disposable has come up with a simple and effective solution: sorting stations. These may look different depending on the different waste streams in the school district, but the premise is the same: set up an organized line of disposal stations, starting with a utensil soaking bin first. Once the utensils are off their lunch trays, students can easily dispose of their trash, compost, recycling, etc without risk of dropping their silverware. Empty trays stack up easily at the end of the line. Amber Schmidt of ReThink Disposable reports a 0% loss rate using this method at schools in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. 

An added benefit? Learning these sorting behaviors in school equips students to be conscientious stewards of the waste system, as more municipalities encourage responsible recycling and composting to solve for rapidly filling landfills.