Green our NC School Lunchrooms
Tax deductible
Hello!
Every Tray Counts (ETC) - a North Carolina based non-profit working within NC school districts with children, parents, schools and interested community members. We envision a North Carolina where every school lunchroom has waste diversion practices that protect the health of our children and the environment. We address two environmental issues: the removal of polystyrene trays - a single use plastic, and implementing best waste diversion practices. Our program starts conversations about all aspects of sustainability from food waste to soil health and more.
This year we are celebrating our fifth year as an environmental and educational non-profit. So far we’ve been able to divert over 50 tons of compostable waste generated in school lunchrooms away from our already overburdened landfills, and replace over 10 million polystyrene (Styrofoam™) trays with compostable trays.
A successful ETC full pilot program in a Cary elementary school.
Why is Our Mission Important to North Carolina?
The Health of Our Children:
Polystyrene (Styrofoam ™) trays, used in most North Carolina lunchrooms, are made of styrene, pentane and benzene, all known carcinogenic chemicals that can leach into our children’s food.
The Health of Our Environment:
Expanded polystyrene is rarely recycled, takes up space in landfills, and is hazardous to wildlife and watersheds. It has a high production energy cost compared to alternatives.
Lunchroom polystyrene trays are single-use plastics that are discarded after 20 minutes of use.
Starve the Landfill & Feed our Soils:
Through lunchroom audits we’ve been able to consistently show that over 80% of the waste generated in lunchrooms is compostable waste. When this compostable waste is diverted to a composting facility, it is turned into compost - a soil amendment that has been shown to increase crop yields and to sequester enough carbon from the atmosphere to positively impact our climate.
Direct Positive Impact on Our Children:
The ETC program empowers students through daily active participation in an easy, positive and fun way. Lessons learned about health, waste and the environment will guide their lives as they grow older. Students get an opportunity to collaborate with the community as a whole on a positive project benefiting their town, city, state, and planet.
Furthermore, teachers have easy access to real life hands on activities that would enhance STEAM curriculums.
ETC engaging students in a lunchroom waste audit in a Charlotte middle school.
We are currently working with Charlotte/Mecklenburg Schools, Wake County Schools, and Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools, and have already helped many triangle schools move forward. We’ve been contacted by 14 new districts and need your help to keep going – school-by-school, district-by-district.
We are in dire need of funds. Please help us by making a donation to help train, guide, and support schools and school systems to adopt sustainable, just, and environmentally positive waste-diversion policies and practices.
Your donation will help us travel to many school districts all over the state, supply a pilot school with the supplies necessary to begin to prove the value of this program, as well as support the administrative expenses needed to keep expanding.
Thank you!
The Every Tray Counts supporters and volunteers
Every Tray Counts (ETC) - a North Carolina based non-profit working within NC school districts with children, parents, schools and interested community members. We envision a North Carolina where every school lunchroom has waste diversion practices that protect the health of our children and the environment. We address two environmental issues: the removal of polystyrene trays - a single use plastic, and implementing best waste diversion practices. Our program starts conversations about all aspects of sustainability from food waste to soil health and more.
This year we are celebrating our fifth year as an environmental and educational non-profit. So far we’ve been able to divert over 50 tons of compostable waste generated in school lunchrooms away from our already overburdened landfills, and replace over 10 million polystyrene (Styrofoam™) trays with compostable trays.
A successful ETC full pilot program in a Cary elementary school. Why is Our Mission Important to North Carolina?
The Health of Our Children:
Polystyrene (Styrofoam ™) trays, used in most North Carolina lunchrooms, are made of styrene, pentane and benzene, all known carcinogenic chemicals that can leach into our children’s food.
The Health of Our Environment:
Expanded polystyrene is rarely recycled, takes up space in landfills, and is hazardous to wildlife and watersheds. It has a high production energy cost compared to alternatives.
Lunchroom polystyrene trays are single-use plastics that are discarded after 20 minutes of use.
Starve the Landfill & Feed our Soils:
Through lunchroom audits we’ve been able to consistently show that over 80% of the waste generated in lunchrooms is compostable waste. When this compostable waste is diverted to a composting facility, it is turned into compost - a soil amendment that has been shown to increase crop yields and to sequester enough carbon from the atmosphere to positively impact our climate.
Direct Positive Impact on Our Children:
The ETC program empowers students through daily active participation in an easy, positive and fun way. Lessons learned about health, waste and the environment will guide their lives as they grow older. Students get an opportunity to collaborate with the community as a whole on a positive project benefiting their town, city, state, and planet.
Furthermore, teachers have easy access to real life hands on activities that would enhance STEAM curriculums.
ETC engaging students in a lunchroom waste audit in a Charlotte middle school.
We are currently working with Charlotte/Mecklenburg Schools, Wake County Schools, and Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools, and have already helped many triangle schools move forward. We’ve been contacted by 14 new districts and need your help to keep going – school-by-school, district-by-district.
We are in dire need of funds. Please help us by making a donation to help train, guide, and support schools and school systems to adopt sustainable, just, and environmentally positive waste-diversion policies and practices.
Your donation will help us travel to many school districts all over the state, supply a pilot school with the supplies necessary to begin to prove the value of this program, as well as support the administrative expenses needed to keep expanding.
Thank you!
The Every Tray Counts supporters and volunteers
Organizer
Sue Scope
Organizer
Chapel Hill, NC
Every Tray Counts
Registered nonprofit
Donations are typically 100% tax deductible in the US.