PRESS RELASE: The Guilford Lakes Green Team challenged Lakes students this Earth Day to minimize their food waste and trash output in the school’s first annual Zero Trash Lunch initiative. The results took the custodians’ breath away--and left all around unable to stop marveling at the huge impact rendered and discussing the need to make limiting trash a daily event.

During the April 22 competition to determine which lunch period could produce the least trash, bought lunches were served on compostable plates, sparing 100 Styrofoam trays from landfills. Organic waste was collected for composting. Kids were encouraged to minimize their food waste. Students were reminded of the Green Team’s plastic bottle redemptions and bottle cap collection, of items collected in the cafeteria for upcycling, earning Lakes two cents a pop: snack bags, snack bar wrappers, juice pouches. Inspired participants brought unfinished food from their packed lunches back home to eat as after-school snacks, saved uneaten bread crusts to feed the birds, and kept their yogurt spoons to be washed and reused.

Most of all, students stopped to think of any possible consuming/recycling/reusing opportunity for each item before tossing anything anywhere. They not only noticed but also cared about their personal garbage output. They welcomed the chance to do better for our Earth, and they asked questions.

At the end of the day, 252 students left behind just 12.6 pounds of waste. Their total trash filled just one-quarter of a big trash barrel, compared to the usual two FULL trash barrels. First graders won the competition, producing .5 ounces trash per person, followed by the fourth grade (.6 ounces per person), second grade and Multiage (.8 ounces), and third grade (1 ounce).

“It was stunning,” said Green Team chair Pam Medvecky, “The kids felt so good about being empowered to make such good choices for our Earth. My Green Team colleagues and I were thrilled to teach and witness the ‘high-five me’ pride displayed by these children, who knew they had personally made a difference and together broken through the trash barrier to discover a greener frontier.”

Medvecky credited participating students for the success of the Zero Trash Lunch initiative, but said it could not have happened without the invaluable support of Lakes parents, teachers, principal, cafeteria staff, custodians, lunch aides, and much hands-on guidance from the Green Team’s six parent volunteers.

Despite the exciting end result, Green Team members were disheartened by the number of untouched yogurts and unopened carrot bags bound for the trash. “The value of Food Banking programs like the one in place at Baldwin was made clear,” said Sue Ireland, a founding member of the Green Team.

“Did Lakes students learn a lot?” queried Medvecky. “Definitely. Are they newly inspired? Sure. Will it last? Only if the expectation is kindled from within our school system and the direction is given by those watching over every lunch period.”

Added Medvecky: “As teachers of the next generation, we have a responsibility to model proper recycling in our schools. We need to do better than Styrofoam trays in this era of green choices. Allowing Guilford’s students no choice but to toss hundreds of Styrofoam trays daily into our Earth’s trash bin teaches that environmental responsibility is someone else’s problem. Why can’t composting be part of the equation? In the absence of a dedicated recycling manager for our schools, we ALL need to take ownership of the direction in which we are subliminally steering Earth’s youngest caretakers.”

In related news, the Green Team announced that Guilford Lakes students exceeded the goal of earning $50 before April break with their recycling/upcycling collections and plastic bottle redemptions. Juice pouches, snack bags, snack bar wrappers are each worth two cents apiece, with other items worth more. Earnings totaled $52.93, bringing total earnings since the program’s inception in November to $105.28. Since November, Lakes students have collected 2,076 juice pouches, 297 snack bags, 1,178 snack bar wrappers, 470 redeemable water bottles, two trash bags full of plastic bottle caps, 105 pounds of batteries, 223 glue sticks/bottles, 24 inkjet cartridges, and hundreds of soda tabs.

Will there be another Zero Trash Lunch next year at Guilford Lakes? “We sure hope so,” says Medvecky. “With this first initiative, we demonstrated that reducing, reusing, and recycling truly matter—at this school, in life, in every moment that you stand with something disposable in your hand. With luck, Guilford Lakes students will continue to stop before they toss and proudly boast to friends about their zero trash lunch.”