A More Sustainable Cafeteria
As the Riverdale community enters 2023, new changes have been made to the cafeteria. Paper and plastic items have been replaced with ceramic plates, reusable cups, and silverware. According to Chef Jeff, “new procedures have been implemented”, such as the dishwashing station for all silverware and ceramic plates. As a result, Riverdale hopes to become more sustainable and environmentally conscious.
The change from silverware, as opposed to plastic cutlery, is a much more environmentally friendly type of utensil. Due to its unorthodox shape, small size, and lightweight nature, plastic cutlery often jams recycling machinery, making it virtually impossible to recycle. Instead, plastic utensils end up in landfills where it takes them 200 years to decompose fully. The decomposition process is only possible when the materials are exposed to substantial amounts of heat. Plastic utensils are also not reusable. After just one use, plastic cutlery has to be thrown away, causing a large accumulation of plastic materials in the cafeteria for a single day of lunch. The plastic from the cafeteria we use will ultimately end up in landfills, releasing harmful chemicals into soil and groundwater, which harms surrounding ecosystems.
Paper cups, which were recently replaced by their reusable counterparts, also harm the environment. While paper cups may sound like an environmentally friendly choice, they are coated with a plastic resin (polyethylene), for durability. The plastic resin makes paper cups virtually unrecyclable, causing them to pile up in landfills, and leading to mass waste. The use of paper cups also contributes to mass deforestation, which leads to increased greenhouse gas emissions, soil erosion, and the loss of biodiversity. Reusable cups on the other hand cause no waste and are fully sustainable.
The final change from compostable plates to ceramic plates may seem like an unnecessary one. Compostable plates, unlike paper and plastic materials, are more eco-friendly, making them seem like a viable alternative to plastic ones. However, the compostable plates used at Riverdale are often thrown in the trash rather than actually composted. Ms. Costanzo, a Riverdale art teacher, noted additional problems with composting: “A lot of resources, human resources, go into making compostable plates … It’s a lot of resources that you just don’t need to use.” Switching to reusable ceramic plates eliminates the problems caused by disposable materials since they cause less waste.
Despite the great strides made by the community, there is still much to be done to make Riverdale more sustainable. Senior Zoey Marks, a leader of the Sustainability Club, expressed a desire to do more work in the cafeteria, saying, “composting is something we want to focus on… What we want to do is to industrially compost, which means every day, all the food we consume would be separated from non-compostable materials and sent to an industrial composter to be composted.” With more sustainability actions in the future, in addition to the changes already made, Riverdale can fulfill its potential for being environmentally sustainable.
