I spent an hour and 30 minutes collecting milk cartons at my kids' school during lunch. I'm going to use them as molds for candle making. I left before I could collect from the last 8 tables, but here is what I gathered that day:
* 148 milk cartons.
* I estimate another 45 from the last eight tables, which is a total of 193.
* From my 148 cartons I poured out 2 1/4 gallons of leftover milk.
* Each carton is 1/2 pint, so, there were 9 1/4 gallons total to start with. About 1/4 of the milk is wasted.
* I know for a fact that my kids contribute to the wasted milk. I've been at lunch with William and watched him about to throw away a carton of milk from which he only took one sip (so I drank it... I love milk!).
* None of the cartons are recycled.
* I did work with the school at the beginning of the year to start cardboard recycling, and we recently recycled our first truck load! But, there is still a lot of room for growth in our green habits.
* The preferred drink in the lunch room is chocolate milk... By a landslide.
* Kids in K-2nd throw away many more "full cartons" than their larger bellied 3rd-5th graders.
* This doesn't even begin to touch on the amount of food tossed into the garbage cans....
Just some food, or milk, for thought.
It was fun chatting with the kids as they walked by my collection point... They were fascinated that I was going to make candles using their cartons and leftover church candles. Gotta get melting soon!
That is a ton (well, not literally a ton) of wasted milk. Are kids required to get milk each day? Why not each parent just send a drink in a reusable thermos or bottle? I guess I should join your efforts in the school's Green Team. ;)
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