Four Portland students in third grade through seventh grade helped tote more than 1,000 used plastic foam lunch trays in front of the school board Monday night to make their case: Far too many petroleum-based disposable trays are ending up in the landfill, defying Portland's desire to be a green community.

Among Portland's 85 schools, 28 have switched to using reusable sturdy plastic trays and real silverware and another 17 are in line to make that change in the coming months.

But, more than 20 years after Portland banned restaurants from using polystyrene containers to serve food, 40 other schools continue to serve breakfast and lunch on plastic foam plates and trays with disposable plastic silverware.

School district officials explain that, at most of those schools, making an eco switch isn't so easy. Many of Portland's decades-old schools that have not been updated don't have the plumbing capabilities to deliver enough water pressure and hot water to properly sanitize trays, according to Gitta Grether-Sweeney, district director of nutrition services. Until those schools can get major plumbing upgrades, reusing trays won't be safe, she said.

High schools aren't candidates to get reusable trays because too many students leave the cafeteria to eat their lunch and too few trays would be returned, she said. But she said her department will test other options, such as paper boats or paper plates, that could be composted rather than last for hundreds of years in landfills.

High schools and middle schools should be able to have other non-styrofoam options in place by next year, she said.

Still, she acknowledged, Portland students have put up with eating off eco-unfriendly disposable plastic trays and sporks for a long time after that practice was abandoned elsewhere in their community.

"We have always put the money on kids' trays, in other words, bought better food, rather than into getting a better tray," Grether-Sweeney says. "You would think it would be oh-so-easy to switch, but nothing is fast enough."

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