KAAL-TV
Updated: January 23, 2020 10:23 PM
Created: January 23, 2020 08:49 PM
(ABC 6 News)--The Go Green Club at Austin high school is using this semester to prove that a little can go long way.
Three seniors share how they wanted to help make a difference in their community, and in doing so, they decided that metal utensils could be the best way to start.
"We just realized that we were using a lot of plastic silverware every day and thought that switching to metal silverware would really reduce the amount of waste that we were producing," said Morgan Raymond, who is a member of Go Green.
Last year the organization went to their school leaders with the idea to switch things up in the lunchroom by not using the harmful material that sits in the land fields, according to Lisa Rueckert who is the club adviser.
"This is something we've been wanting to do for a while and our Go Green club last year kind of thought of the idea of maybe switching over from plastic to metal silverware. We also worked with our administration as well to put that in place and now we're here," said member Katie Lillemon.
The seniors say their classmates have been taking to the change fairly well from what they've seen in the first few days of the transition, but Rueckert said she's noticed mixed emotions.
"Some kids are thinking it's great and some kids are like we're not sure about the germs," said Rueckert.
When the club went to the administration they weighed out the pros and cons of switching to meal forks and spoons. One of the concerns as Reuckert mentions was sanitation.
"They are soaked and then washed twice in 185 degrees Fahrenheit, so they're being sanitized. They're cleaner than the dishes we use at home at that heat," she said.
The cost was another concern.
"The initial cost will be higher than we would normally be spending but hopefully as we go down the road, the cost will even out," said Mary Weikum, who is the Director of Food and Nutrition Services.
The students will start off only using the metal forks and spoons for the rest of this semester, a trial period, that the students believe is still a major victory.
"It's only one step for now but it's going to have such a big impact overall on our school and our community," said Raymond.
After this semester, based on how well they were able to manage cost the school will revisit the idea of permanently going metal. Officials said right now students are still used to throwing away their utensils so having to continuously replace them could become an issue in the future, but that's just a minor fork in the road for now.
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