For healthier, greener school lunches we should cut plastic waste

On our food’s way to our plates, it’s often encased in plastic. Plastic packaging accounts for 40% of the plastic made worldwide — and most of it is used once and then thrown away.

One surprising source of single-use plastic is school lunchrooms. Cutting back on plastic waste in school lunches can help make the school year greener and healthier for students everywhere.

School lunches produce a lot of plastic waste

Public schools in the United States produce over 14,500 tons of waste every day, and a lot of that comes from the cafeteria.

Over the course of one nine-month school year, each student eating a disposable lunch produces 67 pounds of waste. Think about every snack in a plastic wrapper, every plastic water bottle, the piles of plastic cutlery, and all the plastic packaging that is used to transport food from one place to another.

Packing lunches in reusable containers is one way to cut back on waste at school. But food companies must also do their part to reduce plastic packaging and address this growing problem.

The health risks of plastic packaging on food

Cutting back on plastic waste in school lunches isn’t just a matter of sustainability. It’s an important way we can protect students’ health.

The health risks of plastic packaging on food are not fully understood, but some research does point to potential dangerous health impacts of certain plastics. 

Styrene is used to make plastic and rubber, including food containers and lunch bags. Styrene can leach into hot foods and make its way into the human body. This could be very dangerous: Styrene is a possible human carcinogen.

As plastic packaging breaks down over time, it can form tiny plastic particles called microplastics – or even miniscule nanoplastics, invisible to the naked eye. Researchers have found thousands of plastic particles in bottled water, indicating that food and drink packaged in plastic may contain more plastic than we previously thought.

Researchers have discovered that microplastics harm the gut health of the seabirds they studied – and they warn that microplastics could have similar health effects on human bodies, too.

Teach students sustainability with greener school lunches

Not all the learning at school happens inside the classroom. Forming healthy and sustainable lunchtime habits is a positive change students can make that can last a lifetime.

Going green at schools can have a big impact on families’ homes. One survey found that nearly 90% of U.S. parents are inspired by their kids to be more sustainable. According to many parents, kids are advocating for green solutions at home.

Making school lunches sustainable is a great first step toward teaching students sustainability in the rest of their lives.

Sysco is America’s largest food distributor

We know that plastic packaging is wasteful, and that it can sometimes even be harmful. And we know that greener school lunches can help students, families, and communities all become more sustainable. But what can big food companies do about it?

Sysco delivers food to places with large numbers of people to serve, including public schools and universities. They are a direct part of providing meals to many students in the U.S. 

Sysco can figure out how to deliver delicious ingredients without so much plastic. The company needs to make a strong commitment to phase out wasteful plastic throughout its supply chain. This would help get single-use plastic packaging out of higher education, and inspire change industry-wide.

Urge Sysco to cut back on plastic packaging

When you or I buy our own groceries, we can try our best to buy foods with less plastic packaging. But we can have an even farther reaching impact when we band together to convince big businesses to consider their plastic footprint and do something about it.

By adding your name to our petition, you’re teaming up with thousands of people to call for concrete action to put wildlife over waste.