Problem

Methacton High school, located in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, is made up of 1,628 students over four grades. This large number of students leads to substantial amounts of waste produced a year, including plastic knives, forks, and paper coffee cups, with plastic lids. As students, we enjoy the privilege of being able to purchase hot drinks like coffee, hot chocolate, and tea from our school cafeteria. With the national average of about 40% of children aged 13-18 consuming coffee, many of these paper and plastic coffee cups are used on a daily basis. If this 40% is applied to the number of students at Methacton Highschool, a number of just over 650 is found. This means that at least 650 students are drinking some kind of coffee on a weekly basis. This number can be used to provide funds for the district though also at the same time adding great waste into local landfills. So how can we as a school use this number to bring in funds though also cut back on the number of cups used?

Solution

One easy solution to this problem is allowing Methacton High School Students to bring in their own tumblers and lidded travel mugs. With many students already carrying their own cups in their bags, this could be a great way to increase the number of students purchasing hot drinks from the school cafeteria while also helping to cut back on the waste created by the paper and plastic cups provided. With the average tumbler ounce sizes being 12 ounces, 16 ounces, and 20 ounces our school could design three different prices for the three different cup sizes.

Personal story

I am starting this petition to help cut back on the waste created my school, Methacton High School. The average paper coffee cup and lid, together, weigh about 12 grams. If this number is multiplied by the number of students purchasing hot drinks weekly, which is 650, a number of 7800 is found. If this number is then multiplied by the number of weeks of school, 45, we get a number of 351,000. Take this final number and divide by 460 and we will get the weight, in pounds, these coffee cups create. This number is just over 774 pounds of coffee cup waste produced a year. Some may say these cups can just biodegrade, well actually many are lined with plastic making the time of decomposition just under 20 years. I would like to make a change and lower this number of waste and help make my school environmentally friendly.