Today’s Lunch Special: a Green and Trash-Free Lunch
by Laurel Peltier on September 26th, 2007
Laurel Peltier is a contributing writer for Earth 911. Become an Earth 911 contributor.
Looking for ways to become eco-friendly? An easy place to make a difference is with your child’s lunch.
Though juice boxes and individually wrapped ‘grab and go’ foods are convenient, they generate tons of trash. Each year the average child dumps 67 pounds of lunchbox trash costing school districts valuable dollars to collect and dispose of the trash.
Re-thinking how your child’s meal gets packed can reduce trash going to landfills and has some unexpected benefits.
Simple ways to pack a trash-free lunch:
- Send food in re-usable lunchboxes instead of paper bags (Also, remember if using a soft lunchbox that contains “PVC”, consider testing the bag for lead).
- Instead of plastic wrap, foil or baggies, pack food in re-usable plastic containers.
- Consider buying foods in bulk or in larger boxes and packing a portion in re-usable plastic containers.
- Send drinks in a shatterproof thermos, a re-usable drink container (some are available with ice cores built into the bottle) or send in bottled water and recycle the bottle when it returns home.
- Try cloth napkins, or re-usable silverware that can be washed at home.
In addition to feeling good about reducing trash, a few added benefits are:
- Parents save money. Individually wrapped goodies and drinks are premium-priced, often up to 50 percent higher.
- Parents see leftovers. “Hmm, the healthy sandwich has one bite taken, and every cookie disappeared.” And, many kids snack on leftovers after school.
- Healthier food choices. Your food and drink options are limitless when you pack in re-usable containers and don’t rely on pre-packaged items, which tend to be processed foods.
To learn more about trash-free lunches for your family, or even your school, visit www.wastefreelunches.org. The EPA also has a page dedicated to this subject at http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/education/lunch.htm.
4:38 pm on September 27th, 2007
Great article. Really enjoyed it. I will impliment the ideas. :)
8:08 pm on September 28th, 2007
Great ideas!
1:03 pm on October 1st, 2007
[…] Read more at Earth911.org. […]
9:10 pm on October 2nd, 2007
We’ve been holding a no trash lunch contest between elementary school classes for over 5 years at Carbon County Environmental Education Center. www.carboneec.org Ther result has been greatly reduces trash from 3 districts!!!
5:29 am on October 3rd, 2007
This program works! We at Carbon County Environmental Education Center have been teaching this program for over 5 years by way of a trash weighing contest. The volume of trash that is brought to our center in student lunches has dropped dramatically - to almost nothing. Some classes bring us NO trash at all! Lunchables are an enemy of the earth!!!
11:15 pm on January 29th, 2008
Fantastic that efforts to reduce packaging waste in schools has been so successful! I hope to see more schools draw inspiration from the above commenters programs (and hopefully this article!)
A similar packaging demon for adults and families are those 100-calorie packs that are everywhere. Those of us dieting enjoy the convenience they can provide when attempting to control the size of your portions, but consider this:
-They are approximately an 8x mark-up on price than the regular item
-They have 4-6x the packaging of the regular item
-That packaging is generally not recyclable.Snack Packs are a waste of packaging and money! :)
http://www.bravenewleaf.com
–A new greenie trying to reduce her carbon footprint.
8:54 pm on February 12th, 2008
Not only does this concept apply to students at school, it applies to the millions of people who bring their lunches every day for work.
11:04 pm on February 17th, 2008
Slightly off-topic since I know this wasn’t the intended focus, but another approach to a green lunch is not just green packaging, but green food. Eat local, organic, or probably most effective, meat-free. :o)
Oh, except your kids might hate you for that…
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