$WA$TED$
Styrofoam trays are used by many students daily and are thrown away and not recycled. This causes a complete waste of money and resources. The trays are made of a completely recyclable non-biodegradable material. Recycling trays would save the school money for trash pickup and while not adding to the environmental effect. The school has blue reusable trays that can be washed over and over. I question why do we not use these?
First, if we did not buy the Styrofoam trays, the school would save money and use it for other things such as investing in more plastic trays. One solution to the waste problem would be that students could boycott the Styrofoam trays and use the blue ones which would help the environment while giving the school extra money to toy around with.
Second, the government should put a tax on heavy users of the Styrofoam trays. This tax might make schools take a second look at the reusable trays in order to save money along with the environment. Students used to using the Styrofoam trays would have to clean off the reusable trays and place them on the tray return instead of throwing the tray away. For many of these students it will not be a hard adjustment, only a matter of changing a bad habit.
Lastly, when the blue reusable trays finally get worn out, they can be recycled fully to make brand new reusable trays! The Styrofoam trays would get dumped into a landfill somewhere and left for future generations. The later generations would then have a problem on their hands of how to get rid of the non-biodegraded materials.
Many of my solutions to this never-ending problem will never happen. People will never give up convenience to save the planet. For some change would be easy; for others it’s just way too hard to accommodate new changes to their wasteful daily lives. When Climate Change comes to its worst, the blame goes to them. So think next time: Plastic or Styrofoam?