Metal Forks Sustainability Initiative: And Why It Failed
This fall, JCHS made a new change to its lunch program. An initiative spearheaded by lunch program coordinator Mr. Shapero replaced compostable plastic cutlery with new reusable metal cutlery.
“The idea stems from wanting to reduce JCHS’s waste and carbon footprint.”
The reasoning behind the switch was simple: cut costs and reduce waste. According to Mr. Shapero, “The idea stems from wanting to reduce JCHS’s waste and carbon footprint.” Mr. Shapero explained that “it takes minimal water to wash forks, and the overall environmental impact is less than constantly buying packs of compostable ones.” The metal cutlery initiative makes sense at JCHS because there have been several projects and keystones that focused on waste at school and how we might reduce our environmental impact.
According to Mr. Shapero, the idea for metal cutlery had been in circulation for years. However, there were several logistical issues the lunch program had to address. The first concern was how community members would distinguish between school and personal cutlery. Since JCHS keeps a kosher kitchen, the mixing of kosher and nonkosher cutlery is an important concern. To solve this issue, blue zip ties were put around each JCHS fork to distinguish them from non-JCHS items. A second issue was the question of where students would place the forks after lunch. It was decided that bins for collecting silverware would be placed by the kitchen and by trash cans inside the Commons.
“Of course I knew that JCHS would lose some forks, but not to this degree.”
Despite the benefits of the metal cutlery program, serious problems arose immediately. Most notably, there was a mass disappearance of forks. The JCHS lunch program lost nearly 100 metal forks in less than a month, and this number does not include those forks rescued from trash cans, lunch tables, and lying around the school. “When I worked in the restaurant business, it was inevitable that we would lose forks,” said Mr. Shapero. “Of course I knew that JCHS would lose some forks, but not to this degree.” Eventually, Mr. Shapero had no choice but to admit defeat and return to plastic cutlery.
“In principle, it was a good idea, but in practice, it didn’t work.”
The introduction of the metal forks got mixed results from various members of the community. Most of the people I interviewed were on board with the program, however, they didn’t like how it was implemented. As junior Lael Talmon put it, “In principle, it was a good idea, but in practice, it didn’t work.” Senior Libby Bass agreed, saying “Good idea, terrible execution.” Senior Kyle Robb went even farther by saying “It was annoying to use the metal forks because you had to go all the way inside to put the forks away. I personally did that, but it was a stretch for the school to assume students would properly put the metal forks away.” Ms. Dean, the AP Environmental Science teacher, also thought the execution could have been improved. “I think the program wasn’t carried out right. We needed people stationed at trash cans to make sure that no forks were being thrown away.”
“...it was a stretch for the school to assume students would properly put the metal forks away.”
Still, it baffles me why community members would throw metal cutlery away. One possibility is that community members were used to throwing away their plates in trash cans didn’t realize that they were throwing away metal forks. Since there are still disposable plates, it’s possible that metal forks were thrown away alongside the plates out of habit. More pessimistically perhaps, community members may have just been lazy, not paying attention or caring that they were throwing away their metal forks. Another reason may have been a lack of community education. Mr. Shapero admitted that he could have done a better job educating the community on the switch. Or possibly it was a hybrid of habit, laziness, and lack of education. In short, perhaps community members were suddenly thrown into an unfamiliar situation and didn’t care enough to change their disposal practices.
“...to make the program work, we need a cleanup culture change.”
Despite the initial failure of the metal cutlery program, Mr. Shapero is dedicated to its return. “It is my full intention to bring the metal fork program back.” Mr. Shapero said. “However, to make the program work, we need a cleanup culture change.” Perhaps one day in the future, JCHS will be ready to bring back metal forks so we can do our part in building a more sustainable community.
If you have any suggestions for improving the metal cutlery program, please contact Mr. Shapero. He is extremely receptive to feedback and would be glad to hear any additional input.
