Waste-Free Wednesday: Making Sense of Lunch
For today’s Waste-Free Wednesday, I’d like to take a look at a tried and true eco-topic, the waste-free lunch. When it comes to school-aged kids, this is one of the best ways to talk to them about reducing waste and conserving resources.
If you’re not familiar with the concept, here’s a little background info. According to Wastefreelunches.org, the average school aged child produces roughly 67 pounds of waste each year, just in her school lunches. The modern school lunch has become a single serving eco-nightmare filled with juice boxes, disposable baggies, single-serving meal pouches, tossable utensils and paper napkins.
The idea behind a waste-free lunch is to replace all these disposable items with reusables: a reusable drink bottle and sandwich containers, a cloth napkin, and reusable utensils all tossed together in a cloth bag or reusable lunch box. Filling up a reusable container with a handful of veggies or crackers not only eliminates waste, it also costs much less than buying a bunch of single-serving pouches. And its a great conversation starter with the kids. So a waste-free lunch just makes sense, right?
You may already have many of the items you need to pack a waste-free lunch. But if you do need to buy new, look for containers and a lunch bag that are BPA, PVC, and lead free. I really like the cool eco-kits from Lunchsense (pictured above). It took a mom of three (now 6, 8, and 10) to come up with a better way of packing healthy, portion-appropriate meals for kids…all in waste-free, eco-savvy containers.
And while we’re on the subject, here’s more waste-free goodness from around the web:
- Crunchy Chicken contemplates the neurology of spending.
- Food blogger Robin Shreeves from MNN offers 7 reasons why you should take your lunch to work.
Hey, these are cool! I’ve been searching for these type of food containers for my kids. I prefer to pack them lunch everyday since I don’t like them eating those additive-laden school hot lunches. Thank you so much for sharing!
We sell a similar product by Laptop Lunches in our fundraising programs, but I always enjoy learning about other options we may entertain to add to our line.
Any package like this is a supreme alternative to sandwich bags, juice boxes and plastic bottles. Great tip - thanks.
I think it is great that you can replace those harmful to the environment of container on a more environmentally friendly. Indeed, concern for the environment a matter of each individual.
Another recently launched mom company is LunchBots - http://www.LunchBots.com. LunchBots are stainless steel lunch and snack containers for kids that contain no plastic. Even the lids are stainless steel. We prefer to avoid plastic if we can. We use these for sandwiches, fruit, nuts, chips, etc.
Kids Konserve offers eco-cool waste-free reusable lunch products and awareness programs. Take the Waste-Free Lunch Challenge, Bottle Drive, or host a waste-free party.
Visit http://kidskonserve.com for more information on how to get started.