In the past at Geneva schools styrofoam trays have been given to students who wish to eat elsewhere in the buildings, averaging to approximately forty trays disposed of per day. However, a few months ago one of the dishwashers in the kitchen, shared by the high school and middle school, broke and hasn't been replaced. Since the remaining dishwashers can only support the dishes from one school the kitchen rotates its use between schools. For a few weeks at a time one school gets the reusable trays and the other gets stryofoam. Now hundreds of styrofoams trays are used each day, over a thousand per week! All of those trays ultimately end up in the land fill where it will take them at minimum five hundred years to decompose. Both the students and kitchen staff are angered at how much styrofoam our schools are using because we see the long term negative impact it will have on our environment.

            For starters, the broken dishwasher must be fixed or replaced to allow both schools to go back to using primarily reusable trays. Ultimately styrofoam trays should be removed completely from our cafeteria and replaced with biodegradable trays. This would allow for those students who wish to eat elsewhere to continue to do so in an environmentally sustainable way. It would be more expensive, however it's a sacrifice we must make to ensure that the earth, the one place we all have in common survives. Jane Goodall once said "You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make". The student body wants to change our ways, please join the movement by signing this petition.