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K-12 students spend half their year in school, with up to 60% of students choosing school-provided lunch options. Pre-K and daycare kids are in these educational settings year-round. Unfortunately, many schools serve meals on disposable cafeteria foodware such as polystyrene foam trays and plastic utensils.

Each year we collaborate with our reuse partners to highlight our work reducing single use plastic foodware from our waste streams. Why? Well, we know that 50% of all plastic ever produced has been manufactured since 2000. We also know that plastic contains forever chemicals that are known to cause health problems in humans.

On October 8th, Alameda City employees Kerry Parker and Marc Bautista joined ReThink Disposable program staff and members of Clean Water Action's field canvass team to pick through litter collected by the city’s streetsweeper from the two main busy commercial downtown districts on the island. The goals: analyze the contents and characterization of street litter including each piece’s material type (like plastic, fiber, metal, or glass), product type (like cup, lid, container, packet, or straw), and brand (if the littered food and beverage packaging had a clearly recognizable brand).

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