Photo courtesy of CarryoutSupplies
Tree-huggers aren’t going to like this one, but the Episcopal Academy might be one of the only places where garbage disposal days create a symphony of clangs instead of a simple whir. What could that be? An innocent banana peel? No; it is none but the cacophony of a hundred metal forks and knives crashing into the garbage truck.
Yes, metal. The very same material that is meant to be reusable, yet consistently ends up in what are meant to be “dispose of” bins across campus. (Although, from the volume of trendy metal water bottles per capita, it’s pretty evident the Academy struggles to grasp the concept of “reusable” as a whole.) Even so, we, the student body, contend that the blame should not fall solely on us for this heavy metal travesty.
In order to illustrate this point, let us travel back to last week. As I sat in my Flex-block class, I was in pure, undeniable agony. My stomach was growling so loud I think that my peers will be unable to hear the bell, my foot was tapping so rapidly, counting down the seconds until freedom, that I feared it might fall off, and my mind was no longer in a classroom on the third floor of the Upper School; it was in the cafeteria. I needed lunch. I saw lunch. I felt lunch. I… even heard lunch? And yet, what awaited me the next block? A relaxing 30 minutes in the cafeteria surrounded by my close friends with a steaming plate of delicious food in front of me? No. I had an Editors’ meeting in the Upper School. Or a Community Service Board Meeting. Or a Model UN meeting. Or Bible Study. Or any of the other extracurricular activities that students at EA, like myself, find themselves in during Lunch blocks on any given day of the week. Now, the issue with this does not lie in a passion for journalism, or a desire to analyze Biblical verse. No, the problem is that when these meetings adjourn, metal forks, spoons, and knives, and dishwasher-safe plates, always end up in the trash can instead of their assigned conveyor-belt location in the dining hall. I myself have committed this grave sin when I worried I would be detrimentally late to a short-block assessment. Other times, I have been so stressed about making it to the Campus Center, back to the Upper School, and back to the Campus Center once more that I avoid eating lunch altogether and try to pack a snack when I know I have a meeting. The cyclical problem of metal waste, and student’s growling pains, presents itself in this way.
As a freshman, I carried a ziplock bag in my backpack’s front pocket exclusively for stray forks that I didn’t have time to return. I had a collection of over twenty by the end of the year, which I dutifully returned to the cafeteria. Oh, my sweet summer child! Any difference I could’ve possibly made going through that trouble was quickly negated as a group of senior boys walked past, each dumping their entire meals, utensils and all, into the Upper School trash can on the way to the short block.
It’s tragic, really. And it leaves me starving for a solution. Perhaps the answer lies with the cafeteria itself. We contend that we should consistently have access to disposable utensils and plates for meals to-go, not just the knives next to the toaster. If this were to become common practice, the stress behind meetings during lunch, as well as the improper waste that is their byproduct, would be significantly lowered.
However, would that mean more plastic waste would be generated daily by the student body? Yes, plastic utensils are terrible for the environment–whether it be through released microplastics, the production process, or the inevitable shortage of recycling. But what about eco-friendly alternatives? If we can afford to throw metal into the trash, there must be somewhat of an ample utensil budget that we can more effectively utilize. Let’s go back to the basics: wood, bamboo, compostable materials…the possibilities are endless. Either way, something ends up in the trash. So which one will it be, Episcopal? Pick your poison!