Young Activists to Urge Takoma Park Restaurants To Abandon Polystyrene Service Ware

The , a group of students at Piney Branch Elementary School who are seeking to rid the school of polystyrene food service ware, are preparing to ask the same of Takoma Park restaurants and food-service businesses.

The club plans to undertake a campaign in which the members will approach those businesses and ask them to agree to not use polystyrene food service ware, said Margo Bloch, a fifth-grader at Piney Branch and a member of the young activists group. Organizations that do agree, will be asked to sign a “Pledge for Businesses,” a draft of which reads:

“On behalf of my business, I pledge to not use polystyrene food service ware for anything in our restaurant/store. We recognize that polystyrene—resin code #6—is non-recyclable, non-re-useable and non-compostable and that it is made from styrene, a known neurotoxin and suspected human carcinogen. As an alternative, my business will use re-usable or compostable plates, containers, cups and silverware to serve our food and drinks. I sign this on behalf of my business because I want to do good for our community, our customers and our environment.”

“If they sign the pledge, they’ll get a sticker that says ‘we went polystyrene free,’” Bloch said.

For the past three years, the Young Activist Club has been campaigning to get Piney Branch Elementary School to stop using polystyrene food service ware and plastic cutlery, and use dishwasher cleanable re-useable trays. Piney Branch students use about 250 polystyrene foam trays per day, and countywide, the school system produces about 5.6 million foam trays annually.

 The polystyrene food service ware is incinerated creating “toxins in the air” and adding to greenhouse gases, Bloch said.

To make the transition from disposable service ware to re-useable trays, Piney Branch Elementary School would need to purchase a dishwasher, which is estimated to cost between $3,100 and $4,500, depending on the make and model. Additional costs estimated by the Young Activist Club include $1,500 to purchase enough hard plastic trays for the school's 500 students; $400 to $600 for washable flatware; and $5,000 per year to pay someone to operate the dishwasher. The club has raised $11,000 to cover those expenses, Bloch said.

However, the school district disputes those figures, saying it conducted an "item-by-item" analysis of the Burke Design report and found a "discrepancy" in the cost of staff time to operate the dishwasher. The school district says it would cost $11,323 in staff time to operate the dishwasher.

“The Board of Education will not even bring [the purchase of a dishwasher] up for a vote," Bloch said. Nonetheless, the club plans to continue to urge the school to abandon polystyrene food service ware, and it is poised to ask Takoma Park restaurants and food service providers to do the same.