A Georgia school district is considering swapping out plastic lunch trays with eco-friendly metal ones, and it's all thanks to students.
At an Athens City School District board meeting in June, a group of Athens High School students made a presentation asking the district to purchase stainless steel trays for students' lunches.
The Athens Independent reported the students are a part of Athens ReThink Plastics, a group working to reduce plastic use across the city.
"We don't have many clubs that are directly doing things about sustainability or local issues," one of the students, Rachel Prange, told the Athens Independent. "I thought that it was really cool to be a part of."
Currently, high school students in the district use trays made of plastic foam, commonly known as Styrofoam. Elementary students use trays made of plastic or plastic foam.
In particular, the students expressed concern about how the current trays create large numbers of microplastics, and how dangerous those could be to students' health.
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Plastic foam is cheap to produce, lightweight, and insulates well, which has made it a staple in many kitchens and cafeterias for decades. But it also plays a large role in the roughly 500 million tons of carbon pollution created each year by single-use plastics.
While cafeteria trays are not single-use, plastic also breaks apart easily, which helps create the microplastics the students discussed. These tiny particles are seemingly found everywhere, from our oceans to human brains, and have been linked to health concerns such as lung cancer.
Because of those concerns, many states have banned food services from using plastic foam products. Georgia is considering such a ban statewide, and that's a standard Athens students hope their school district will follow.
"I think that there is a little hypocrisy when we teach in science class about what's happening on the planet, and yet they go to the cafeteria and see a very different landscape," Janalee Stock of Athens ReThink Plastics told The Independent. "So to see young people that have the energy and … the intelligence to take on the issue, it's just so exciting to me."
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District officials told The Independent they support a move to stainless steel trays, especially with the city opening a new high school in 2027. They also noted, however, the need to determine the cost of such a switch.
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