Quickfacts: A popular estimate suggests that the average child in school can create as much as 67 pounds of waste per school year. More and more schools are going green and promoting choices that encourage families to preserve our environment. Packing a waste free lunch is a perfect way that parents can reinforce these lessons and teach their children about responsible environmental stewardship. In addition to helping the planet, a zero waste lunch can save money and be more healthful.
Invest a Little Time, Get a Great Benefit
Convenience foods, ready to pack in your child’s lunch are a huge time saver for families struggling to get kids up and out the door for school each day. Tossing a juice box, bag of chips and a pre-packaged lunch meat and cheese combo box may shave an extra twenty minutes off your morning routine but it’s also contributing to a mountain of waste in our landfills and flooding your child with unnecessary sugar, salt and preservatives.
Consider investing that extra twenty minutes each morning in reducing the amount of trash on our planet by packing your child a “zero waste” lunch. A zero waste lunch is a packed lunch that does not leave behind any trash products. Ideally, everything put into the lunch, as well as the reusable lunch bag or box, is able to be recycled or reused (or composted for the more adventurous).
Change is Easy
The changes needed to overhaul a regular lunch to a zero waste lunch are relatively easy and may end up saving you money in the long run. Try exchanging paper napkins for cloth (I use my least fancy or make some out of old tablecloths). Trade those petroleum based zip lock bags in for sturdy reusable containers – if they are plastic rinse them by hand rather than putting them in the dishwasher. Instead of plastic utensils, I pack real silverware that I pick up at garage sales or thrift stores. If the occasional spoon doesn’t make it back home, I don’t loose any sleep over it. We have also accumulated a great deal of extra plastic utensils from our trips to the yogurt shop or “to go” meals eaten at home. We save these for lunches and just keep rinsing them off to reuse again.
A stainless steel water bottle works as a perfect replacement for a juice box. And, while purchasing a thermos or steel bottle may seem a bit pricey at first, you’ll save money over time because of its durability — even more if you fill it with water rather juice.
Added Benefits
Other than doing the planet the huge favor of reducing waste in landfills, there are two added benefits to packing a zero waste lunch. First, since you will be placing the food in each container, you get to control what your child eats. I make my own healthier version of the popular lunch meat and cheese combo boxes by using organic, nitrate-free, low sodium turkey breast, organic cheese and low fat, whole wheat crackers. My kids don’t even miss the candy treat. The other bonus is that you will see how much of the lunch actually gets eaten. As the containers return home, you’ll be able to spot if the blackberries were a hit or a messy miss. You also be able to determine if you can slide a little on the veggies at dinner because your little one devoured all the carrots and cherry tomatoes during lunchtime.
Try to go waste free at lunch for yourself — better yet promote a zero waste lunch program at your school. At my children’s school we provide education about zero waste lunch all year and on Earth Day we weigh our lunchtime trash and compare it to a weight taken at the beginning of the year. The improvement is inspiring to all.
Information used in this article was found at the following sources, which you can visit if you want to find out more about this topic:
http://www.wastefreelunches.org/ While this site is sponsored by a company that produces waste-free lunch kits, it contains detailed step-by-step information on how to set up a zero-waste lunch programs in the school setting.
http://www.epa.gov/osw/education/lunch.htm This site has all you need to get your school started on their way to a successful waste-free lunch day, including a letter that you can personalize and send home to parents to announce the event.
http://greenlivingideas.com/topics/eco-home-living/kids/tips-for-packing-a-nutritious-waste-free-lunch A detailed account on how to pack your waste-free lunch with nutrition.
Tags: environmental stewardship, school lunch, waste-free lunch, zero-waste lunch
