Trayless Tuesdays,
 a first step towards eliminating plastic foam from NYC schools!

Cafeteria Culture catalyzed Trayless Tuesdays, resulting in a citywide 20% reduction of  plastic styrene foam (aka, styrofoam) trays in 2010.
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TRAYLESS TUESDAYS led to NYC's decisions to completely eliminate toxic and polluting styrene plastic foam from schools
​and  from food establishments citywide (2013).

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Cafeteria Culture, originally called Styrofoam Out of Schools (SOSnyc - founded in 2009), catalyzed the remarkable launch of Trayless Tuesdays in NYC’s 1700 public schools within one year’s time through initiating an innovative partnership with NYC’s Department of Education - Office of SchoolFood and Parsons the New School.  

In March of 2010, NYC Department of Education (DoE) replaced styrene foam (commonly called Styrofoam) trays with paper boats on every Tuesday in all NYC school cafeterias. The Tuesday menu changed to non-saucy foods, like sandwiches and burgers on this day to help keep the paper boats clean enough to be acceptable for recycling. Many schools also use the paper boats on Fridays (for pizza) and for all breakfast meals. 

The paper boats used in NYC schools on Trayless Tuesdays are compostable! If your school is already composting, please stack the paper boats and add them to your compost bin. The paper boats used in NYC are also recyclable if they are "clean and dry"

TRAYLESS TUESDAYS led to an unprecedented 11-city collective purchasing contract for compostable plates. This eliminates over 1/2 a BILLION toxic and polluting plastic styrene foam plates per year! (learn more->)
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MS 246, Walt Whitman Middle School in Brooklyn
Hear students  explain how TRAYLESS TUESDAYS works at NYC's THE EARTH SCHOOL.

Steps to eliminate styrofoam and other single-use plastics from your cafeteria:

  • Ask to meet with your SchoolFood Cafeteria Manager (every school has one and they are in your cafeteria on a regular basis). Request for this change. Ask your principal and Parent Association representative to join the meeting, 
  • Go to a Green Team or Wellness Committee meeting at your school. If your school does not have these committees, please start one! This is a great way to make positive and healthy change in your cafeteria.
  • Conduct a waste audit; you can start with an easy-to-do plastic audit->  Data informs policy!!
  • ​Write a letter to the editor of your local paper.
  • ​Meet with local policy makers and ask to lead a presentation about the plastic pollution problem.
  • Watch our movie, MICROPLASTIC MADNESS for more #plasticfree inspiration!
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NY1 - segment on NYC's Trayless Tuesdays: TRAYLESS TUESDAYS PROGRAM KICKS OFF IN CITY SCHOOLS (3/16/2010)
Trayless Tuesdays at The Neighborhood School
The Neighborhood School, Manhattan - Cafeteria Rangers sorting and stacking paper boats on TraylessTuesday.

We are ready to eliminate all single-use plastic packaging
​from public schools across the US!


If you are not in New York City and need help eliminating single-use plastic and plastic styrene foam trays from your school(s), sign-up to host a screening of our award winning movie, MICROPLASTIC MADNESS with a Q+A.
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The movie tells the story of 56 fifth graders from P.S. 15 in Brooklyn - living on the frontline of the climate crisis - whose actions on plastic pollution morph into extraordinary leadership and scalable victories. 

MICROPLASTIC MADNESS, the movie and campaign, has inspired youth around the world to take action for a plastic free future! #BreakFreeFromPlastic

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