Reuse in schools
Tired of single-use at school? Be a changemaker in your community.
Schools consume and dispose of billions of single-use foodware items annually and generate a lot of waste that is not easily recycled or composted.
The USDA reports that in 2019, nearly 100,000 schools/institutions served school lunches to 29.6 million students each day.
Many schools still use single-use trays, bowls, plates, cups and plastic cutlery. Not only are these single-use foodware items harmful for the planet, but commonly-used single-use products in school food services have been found to be laced with toxic and carcinogenic perfluorinated compounds, commonly referred to as PFAS.
Sustainability is a goal for many school campuses around the country. But all too often they focus on diversion from landfills – through better recycling and composting – rather than eliminating unnecessary waste in the first place.
No matter if it is tossed, composted, or recycled, waste requires expensive sorting, hauling, and processing. And for the environment and your school budget, reuse beats single-use every time.
Let’s teach future generations to reuse instead of just recycle.
Whether your school’s food is prepared and served on-site; orepared off-site and delivered from a central commercial kitchen; or provided by contracted food management companies, or a combination of the above—there are cost-effective solutions to shift from single-use to reuse in cafeterias, quick grab-and-go stations, and events.
Reallocating your budget from maintaining a costly take-make-waste operation in campus food services to a circular system of reuse for dine-in and grab-and-go will build efficiency that:
reduces waste, carbon emissions and plastic pollution
cuts costs
enhances the dining experience
offers a service that your school community enjoys and takes pride in
Going reusable will save your school money.
Shifting from single-use to reuse provides learning opportunities.
It’s a great way to engage the entire campus community in an action research or community-service learning project. Learning about real world environmental issues and how we can solve them offers content for sustainability education to be integrated throughout the course curriculum. Student clubs and groups, parents, and teachers play a valuable role in developing, communicating, and participating in reusable foodware programs.
Build a stakeholder team
Build a baseline impact report that includes:
The single-use items you’re currently using and the cost of those items
Environmental impacts of those items (can be a student research project)
Upstream’s foodware reuse analytics platform, Chart-Reuse, can do this for you! Learn more and sign up for free today.
Research reusable foodware replacements and reuse service providers (if needed for a large campus)
Create an implementation and action plan that includes:
The cost of new reusables and the estimated payback period
Environmental impacts of no longer using disposables
Develop a communications strategy with new procedures for the school community
Implement and track progress
Follow this proven blueprint to transform your school and shift from single-use to reuse.
Resource Library
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Chart-Reuse: A first-in-industry foodware reuse analytics platform
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The Cost and Environmental Benefits of Reusable Foodware in Schools
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Life Cycle Environmental & Cost Analysis of Disposable vs Reusable Ware in School Cafeterias
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Rethink Disposable Case Study: Palo Alto Unified School District
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Rethink Disposable Case Study: Bishop O’Dowd High School
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Rethink Disposable Case Study: University of San Francisco