My 7th grader chose to investigate his school’s lunch waste flow for his spring science fair topic. He mounted a waste reduction campaign to see if he could lower the amount of waste sent from his school to a landfill.

He promoted “flip, tap and stack,” a technique to help Styrofoam trays take up less room in the landfill, and litter-free lunch. His rationale was that lowering lunch waste would make his school’s environmental footprint smaller.

His hypothesis, though, took me aback: he predicted that students would, unfortunately, not care much about the campaign and that he would therefore not be successful in reducing the waste his school was producing. Unfortunately, he was right. Though he sent out emails, hung signs, and posted in his school’s weekly newsletter, the lunch waste did not change measurably.

Meanwhile, Debby Lee Cohen, the dynamic Pratt design professor and founder of Styrofoam Out of Schools, was taking her own route, working on the Department of Education to take steps to reduce the number of Styrofoam trays sent to landfills. Amazingly, in time for Earth Day, SOS succeeded in establishing “Trayless Tuesdays”: public schools are now going to use paper boats instead of Styrofoam on one day each week, reducing weekly use of Styrofoam trays by 600,000, to “only” 3,400,000.<!--more-->

Even though he did not make as big an impact as Debby Lee, my kid got a lot out of just trying to improve the environmental footprint of his school. Similarly, I’ve noticed that parents who do decide to start providing litter-free lunches to their kids, or swap their own home’s light bulbs for compact fluorescents, are rewarded by these small actions.

On this 40thanniversary of Earth Day, walk the stairs instead of taking the elevator; eat vegetarian, turn off the lights and computers when you leave the house. Install a compact fluorescent bulb. Remember that we can each play a role every day in making this planet a better place to pass on to our kids.