Make Less Trash This School Year

New pens, new pencils, new folders, new backpacks, new clothes... the list goes on and on.  While the beginning of school is a time when people tend to buy a bunch of new things, it is also a great time to outfit your kids and yourself for lunch time.  It makes sense to buy good quality items to use over and over all year.   Items like a good reusable water bottle (instead of a case of water), a thermos, and sturdy food containers (instead of zip-lock bags and individually wrapped food items)  can really make a difference in the amount of trash you make on a day to day basis.

According to the wastefreelunches.org   the average kid produces 67 pounds of waste from their lunch each year.   At a midsized elementary school - that translates to 15-20 tons of garbage each year.  

How to Pack a Zero Waste Lunch

• Make a sandwich or pack leftovers into a reusable container
• Send a reusable fork / spoon
• Include a cloth napkin
• Pack a reusable water bottle
• Transport it all in a reusable lunch box

Zero waste lunch practices have saved us money at our house, because instead of individually wrapped snacks or items like "Uncrustables", we pack our meals from bulk purchases.  We recouped the price of our containers after the first few months.   I do make sure everything is labeled in case a container gets left on the playground, and my kids have one set of reusable containers - which really cuts down on them misplacing things.

I hope you take the challenge and strive to pack zero-waste lunches this year!

What's For (Zero-Waste) Lunch?

Challenge:  Send a nutritious and delicious meal that gets packed at 7:30am and eaten at lunchtime, without any excess garbage.

Challenge accepted:  I am all about making zero-waste (no garbage) lunches.  It has become a bit of a game for me each day as I pack up lunch for the kids and myself, to see if I can make it without generating any waste.  We have tried different types of containers over the years.  Sometimes  we use reusable bags. We used to use plastic containers, but they seem to break down and not hold up over time.  A couple of years ago I bought Sanctus Mundo Stainless Steel Oval  food containers at Whole Foods.  There were about $12. each.  We use them practically every day, and I LOVE them.  The first thing I did was slap a little dishwasher safe sticker on the containers, with my kids names on them, so they didn't get lost at school.  My kids like their food compartmentalized, so I use over-sized silicone cupcake liners to hold their food.  Lunches are packed in their reusable lunch bags, with a reusable ice pack, and a reusable water bottle.

Here are some samples of lunches from this week:

 This is our version of a "Lunchable" - without all the plastic waste (plus fruit and veggies, minus the preservatives!)  I have a small circle cutter I use for their cheese and turkey, and use the excess in an omelet for breakfast. Carrots and hummus are a favorite with the kids.

 "Club sandwich", berries and an apple.

 Pieces of chicken, a container of BBQ sauce for dipping, spiral cut apple, 

and some warm mixed veggies in the green container.  

Changes we have made:
1.   We have stopped buying the "yogurt pops" - those are the yogurt snacks packaged in individual tubes - we used to freeze them and toss them in their lunches. Half the time they would come home uneaten, and then I would have toss both the yogurt and the wrapper.  Now, the kids have fresh fruit instead. 
2.  Make extras at dinner time, so we can pack a thermos of leftovers.
3.  Pack a cloth napkin. 
4.  We don't buy individually wrapped cheese sticks anymore.  We buy a bigger piece of cheese, and cut it for their lunches, as needed.  
5.  We pack a real fork or spoon if needed.  The kids know to bring them home. 


You might be wondering how we are doing on our zero-waste journey.  We are now only putting our waste bin out every other week.  (That includes our recycling - because we have our One Big Bin.)  Even with putting it out every other week, our garbage bin is never full.  We might have to try seeing it we can make it to every three weeks!

Have you made any changes to reduce the amount of garbage you make?  Can you share your favorite waste reduction idea?  I love comments!!