"Schools Say Ciao To Plastic Lunch Trays, Hello To Compostable Plates"

"Six of the largest school districts in the country have banded together to revamp school lunches — and they're starting from the plate up.

School administrators in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami-Dade, Dallas and Orlando in 2012 formed the Urban School Food Alliance. And in May, they announced that they were ditching polystyrene lunch trays and replacing them with compostable lunch plates. It's a significant move since all together, the schools in the Alliance serve up 2.5 million meals a day.

The new lunch plates are easier for kids to hold, with compartments for side dishes and milk, says Eric Goldstein, who chairs the alliance. 'And they're round, unlike the very institutional, rectangular trays we had before,' he says."

Maanvi Singh reports for NPR June 6, 2015.