Students reduce waste, sip by sip: Schools try pouches of milk
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There's no more crying over spilled milk at College Place Elementary School.
Well, hardly any. That's because College Place and three other schools in the Edmonds School District have replaced milk cartons with milk in plastic pouches. The schools are part of a six-week pilot program aimed at reducing waste.
So far the switch has gone smoothly at College Place, said Principal Sue Venable, with cafeteria waste cut by 25 percent since the program began two weeks ago.
Edmonds is the first district in Western Washington to try the "Mini-Sip Pouch," which is already being used in some other states and several Eastern Washington districts, including Spokane and the Tri-Cities.
Earlier this week first-grader Thao Tang poked his straw into the mini-burrito-shaped pouch like a pro, explaining that the trick to not spilling any milk is putting your thumb over the straw.
"You have to hold the pouch with one hand and poke the straw in with the other. Don't push too hard and put it in the middle."
It's easy, said Megan Brookins, also a first-grader. "One day the milk lady showed us how to do it. The next day, boof! We tried it."
The pouch has received mixed reviews at Brier Terrace Middle School. Principal Barbara Marsh said some students have commented that the pouches "look weird" and aren't as easy to hold. But other students have taken to them.
While teens at Edmonds-Woodway High were initially wary of the new packaging, Principal Alan Weiss says they've adapted.
DuPont, the Canadian company that produces the pouches, claims they've reduced cafeteria trash some 80 percent by weight and 70 percent by volume compared with paper cartons, and helped save more than 14 million pounds of waste from going into landfills last year.
Barbara Lloyd, director of the food-services program for the Edmonds district, said she was apprehensive when the program launched. The pouches "look like mini beanbags; I was worried students would throw them or stomp on them."
But Venable has seen no sign of that. Neither has Craig Madsen, principal at Oak Heights Elementary.
"There's been no squirting across the room," he said.
Madsen said the volume of overall trash at Oak Heights — not just cafeteria waste — has gone down about 25 percent since the program started.
DuPont representatives showed students how to use the pouches and were available at schools the day the program launched.
The milk, which is available in nonfat chocolate and 1 percent regular, costs the same as the milk in cartons did — 40 cents at College Place. The pouches hold the same amount as the cartons.
Students said the milk doesn't taste any different from milk in cartons, although one noted that the pouches feel colder.
Doug Wordell, food-services director for Spokane schools, says the pouches have reduced cafeteria trash by 25 to 30 percent since they were introduced in the district's elementary schools two years ago.
But that hasn't translated into savings on garbage-collection costs, Wordell says.
"You'd need to reduce trash output by 50 percent in order to compact two pickups into one," he said. And there are benefits to frequent pickups, such as keeping rodent and pest problems to a minimum.
Angela Lo can be reached at 206-464-3206 or alo@seattletimes.com.