VVSD Lunch Tray Recycling Program a Success

It wasn’t too long ago that students tossed more than two million lunchtime Styrofoam trays into the trash every year.

But these days, thanks to a cooperative effort between two VVSD departments and a Chicago-area company, that number has been significantly reduced.

“A lot of people say you can’t recycle Styrofoam, but we’re proving that’s not true,” said Mike Lopez, director of facility operations for Valley View. “We may not be the only school district doing it, but we’re one of the very few.”

The effort to be more environmentally conscious at lunchtime began earlier this year when VVSD Food Service Director Meghan Gibbons and her staff completely eliminated the use of all 350,000 Styrofoam trays at the middle and high school levels.

But Lopez and Gibbons weren’t satisfied to stop at that.

“Dart Container Corporation became aware of the volume of Styrofoam plates we were throwing out and offered us the opportunity to recycle our elementary school plates,” Lopez said.

Lopez enlisted newly employed Tyler Christopher, a member of the Romeoville High School Class of 2010 and lifelong VVSD student, to oversee the project.

And the rest is history.

Christopher has been the driving force in creating the recycling program, doing everything from helping elementary schools educate students on what constitutes a recyclable tray (“ketchup is this job’s worst nightmare”) to picking up 20,000-30,000 old trays a week at all 12 VVSD elementary schools and driving them to Dart’s North Aurora facility.

Dart shreds and grinds the trays and turns them into small polystyrene pellets that are sold to manufacturers for use in such products as the backing for crown molding or in building construction. The pellets are also used in pens and rulers.

“I wouldn’t consider myself an environmentalist,” he said. “But it makes me feel good seeing how much we’re actually keeping out of the landfill.”

Christopher credits lunchroom aides and school maintenance personnel with being the on-site implementers of the program. But most of all, he credits the elementary school children with making an effort to help.

“They clean and stack their trays,” he said. “They’re learning about recycling every day.”

District officials pursued several options, including using more expensive biodegradable trays, before making the decision to recycle. The School District  estimates it is saving as much as 50 percent in its trash disposal fees because  trash bins aren’t filling up as often.

“They tell me it’s made a huge difference,” Christopher said.