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We’re pleased to announce that the California Resource Recovery Association awarded Center for Environmental Health the Outstanding School Recycling Program Award in honor of our partnerships with schools that have excelled in implementing programs and practices that reduce, reuse, recycle, or compost resources that would otherwise have been wasted.  

We have served 1 million meals on reuseable foodware in Alameda County which diverted 3 million single-use items from the waste stream, which is over 60,000 pounds or 30 tons. Or to put it in elementary school terms, that’s the weight of 25 giraffes or 10 pick-up trucks or 6 school buses or 5 elephants or 1 humpback whale diverted from the waste stream! 

CEH’s Green & Clean Procurement Team Coordinator Ben Schleifer was happy to accept this award from the California Resource Recovery Association, accompanied by a video from actress Sarah Wayne Callies emphasizing the importance CEH plays in protecting children from the chemicals in the products we use every day. And it’s true that eating off reusables doesn’t just protect the environment, but also the students’ health. Some of the molded fiber trays served at school lunches contain PFAS that can leach into the food that many youth consume every school day.  

As another school years begins, we encourage you to propel the reuseable revolution by getting our Ditching Disposables toolkit for free resources and Greenscreen Certified product recommendations to help parents, teachers, and studentspioneer a reuseable foodware program to your local school district. If you are thinking of starting a program, let us know! 

We’re scaling up our efforts for the 2025-2026 school year and are on track to serve 3 million meals on reusables. But we can have even greater impact with your help — whether it’s through starting a reuseable program near you or making a donation so we can protect more children from toxic chemicals by giving schools the tools they need to serve school meals safely on reusable foodware.