Waste Free Lunches

According to Reuseit.com, the average school-age child throws away 67 pounds of lunch packaging waste a year. According to the 2006 Canadian census (http://www.statcan.gc.ca/), in New Brunswick we have 131,520 school age children. Can you believe that this is 8,811,840 pounds of lunch garbage thrown away in our province every year! 

  

Recently I realized that we were going through an average of 5 ziploc plastic bags per day between lunches and food storage. Honestly, I was getting tired of feeling guilty for buying bulk plastic bags from Costco. So I started phasing them out. So here is my green lunch arsenal. Very simple and cheap.

• A Lunch Box (no paper bags)
• Water Bottle
• Reusable Sandwich Container 
• Several Reusable Bags (ReUsies is a great product. See details below.)
• Stainless steel spoons and forks.
• Keep Green Thoughts - my family is warned all the time to throw everything in their lunch box and bring it home...even their garbage. That way I can ensure my reusable containers return home and it allows me to recycle the rest.

Tips:

• When you have to use plastic bags and I still do just much less, I reuse by washing in soap and warm water and then hanging them up to dry for reuse. I always throw them out if they have previously stored meat for safety reasons.
• Reusable Sandwich/Snack Bags! These bags are BPA free PVC free plastic. It's also phthalate free and lead free. Hand washable and durable, use these over and over again to store your sandwiches, chips, veggies, and other munchies and it closes with a velcro strip. Simple, reusable, eco friendly, and BPA free, these are the perfect way to green your lunches. We use ReUsies. Try them you will love them (http://www.reusies.com/reusies-video/reusies-info-video.html)
• Help spread the word about waste-free lunches to your school, teachers and other parents!

Cost Savings: $292 per year

Old routine:
Ziploc Snack Bags, Pint sized, contains 20, 1 box per week.
Ziploc Food Storage Bags, contains 20 bags, 1 box every other week.
Ziploc Freezer Bags, contains 13 bags, 1 box every other week.

New routine:
Ziploc Snack Bags, Pint sized, contains 20 bags, 1 box every 5 weeks.
Ziploc Food Storage Bags, contains 20 bags, 1 box every 5 weeks.
Ziploc Freezer Bags, contains 13 bags, 1 box every 4 weeks.
Most of my lunch arsenal I have owned for years. ReUsies are a new purchase at roughly $8 each so I adjusted the cost savings to account for that.

Links:

• Since I still do use them I am glad to hear Ziploc is getting involved in sustainability. Bags are now manufactured using Wind Energy, 25% less plastic and the carton is made with 100% recycled cardboard too! http://www.ziploc.com/Sustainability/pages/Recyclability-and-Earning-Rewards.aspx

• Waste Free Lunch Information and Programs http://wastefreelunches.org/what-is-a-waste-free-lunch-program.html

• Website I use to purchase ReUsies and some other reusable products: http://www.reuseit.com/ They ship to Canada relatively cheaply and you can find a coupon codes online to save on your purchase.