Yesterday I was reading an article on a group of people here in Chicago who are trying to get the city to ban stryofoam. Yay! Finally!! I was completely shocked and appalled to learn that Chicago Public Schools serve school lunches to it’s 400,000 students everyday on DISPOSABLE POLYSTYRENE TRAYS. I could not believe what I was reading. Seriously?

When I was in school we had reusable plastic trays. They worked just fine.

This is not only a disgusting disregard for the environment but an enormous waste of money! I found a website that sells similar trays and they cost about $37 for 500 trays. That’s about $29,000/ day. Five days a week. No wonder our schools are in such financial trouble. Holy crap!

What kind of message is this sending to children? Why did this switch happen? Why is my tax money being spent on this?

Styrofoam is another huge pet peeve. When I worked downtown my office was right across the street from this place that was kind of like a convenience store but they had a little salad bar and some prepackaged sandwiches etc. From time to time I’d go in there in the morning to get a muffin before work and would see person after person filling up giant styrofoam cups with coca cola and then piling salad fixin’s into a big styrofoam clamshell container. It pissed me off quite honestly.

Then I’d go to work for a few hours and go out to lunch at Corner Bakery and see person after person grab the prepackaged salads or sandwiches pay for them and eat them there instead of just ordering a sandwich ‘for here’ and having it come on a plate. Day after day I watched people getting up from their tables leaving behind a massive pile of plastic containers and paper and huge piles of napkins they grabbed and only used one. It made me crazy.

I had to try to stop myself from yelling at people..

I really wanted to do an installation art piece in a major office building downtown of a huge pile of Starbucks cups and to-go containers so people could see how wasteful is was. The average office worker probably goes to Starbucks (or other coffee place) at least once a day. Then at lunch they probably go to a fast food place where their food probably comes in a plastic or styrofoam container or wrapped in paper and put in a plastic bag. Add in all the paper napkins, condiment packets, soy sauce in a little plastic container, the plastic lined paper cup your soda comes in and don’t forgot the lid and the straw too. That’s just 1 day for 1 person. Multiply that by how many days a year those people are working, and multiply that by how many thousands of people work in offices in downtown Chicago. It’s insanely.. well insane.

But there is hope..

www.nofoamchicago.org

If you live in Chicago check them out. If you don’t, see if there’s a similar group in your city. There are so many alternatives to styrofoam that are much smarter and less toxic. There’s no reason why it should still be in use on such a large scale.