NEW YORK STATE — From Monday, November 18 to Friday, November 22, schools encourage the reduced use of single-use plastics at lunch. 

Each year, according to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), school cafeterias provide well over seven billion meals using single-use plastics. 

Plastic Free Lunch Day (PFLD) aims to inspire schools to ditch these single-use plastics. 

Typically, local recycling facilities cannot process certain single-use plastics, such as utensils and straws. The equipment in many recycling facilities cannot capture some of these plastic items, because the items are too small. As a result, small single-use plastics usually end up in landfills or waste combustion facilities, or can end up as litter in the environment if the items are not properly disposed of. 

PFLD can be initiated at any time, but the week of November 18-22 can help New York schools recognize their environmental impact and work toward positive change. 

The DEC would like to recognize the work of Debby Lee Cohen, who started Plastic Free Lunch Day and was passionate about student-centered learning and environmental advocacy. Cohen passed away in 2024, but, the DEC said, “her legacy lives on in the people she has inspired.”