Packing a Waste Free Lunch

Looking for easy ways to pack a waste freeproblems with plastic and pack your food in a non
lunch for your kid? The good news is that it'splastic metal lunch box instead?
never been easier to pack an eco-friendly, healthy3) Choose a reusable, insulated lunch bag made
school lunch your kids will love.out of recycled materials. Gone are the days of
Why pack a waste free lunch?needing a brown paper bag to pack your lunch in.
Packing a waste free lunchbox lightens yourChoose a reusable lunch bag, and be sure to
carbon footprint on the planet. While manyconfirm that it is lead free and PVC free. You can
parents are used to the "convenience" ofwash it regularly to keep it clean, and your child
single-use plastic baggies and containers, all thatcan use it for their entire school year.
convenience adds up to a lot of garbage - 904) Choose reusable water bottles, preferably
pounds of it per year, per kid! That garbage thenstainless steel ones. With so many different
ends up in our oceans and landfills and contributesstainless steel bottles to choose from, you are
to more global warming gases, which threaten oursure to find one that will suit your child's needs.
children's future.There are small bottles for little kids, brightly
How to pack a waste free lunch?colored bottles, and bottles with cool designs.
1) Choose a lunch box that makes it easy toChoose stainless steel ones that are BPA free.
pack a well balanced school lunch. All children have5) Choose cloth napkins, and preferably ones that
their own likes and dislikes when it comes to theirwill appeal to kids. Cloth napkins are easy to clean
lunches. One child likes variety and surprises, whilein the washing machine and reuse all year long.
another likes the familiarity of that same PB&J6) Choose reusable cutlery. If your child needs a
sandwich every day. But neither child likes it whenfork or spoon with their lunch, you can include a
their sandwich touches their fruit and getsreusable stainless steel fork and spoon, as
everything soggy. Choose a lunch container thatopposed to throw away plastic ones. If your child
will allow you to pack variety of foods that staytends to forget their utensils at school, stock up
in their own compartments and don't "touch eachon some cheap stainless cutlery at the local thrift
other."store - that way you won't risk losing your
2) Choose a stainless steel lunch box. Storing foodfavorite cutlery.
in stainless steel is a better alternative to plastic,7) Choose to buy foods in bulk. Using reusable
and has been used by other cultures forfood containers allows you to buy food in bulk,
generations. Questions still exist about the safetywhich is cheaper and less wasteful than single use
of storing food in plastic. Several research studiescontainers. For example, a 1 oz prepackaged bag
have found that dangerous chemicals in plastic canof cheesy crackers costs 87 cents, but 1 oz of
leach into food and beverages. PVC andthose exact same crackers taken from a 12 oz
Polystyrene have been known to be dangerousbox costs 43 cents - half as much!
for years, and recently there has been a lot of8) Choose organic foods. Organic foods are good
attention on the dangers of #7 Polycarbonatefor your child's health and for the health of the
plastics. This plastic is widely used in clear, rigidplanet. Some families may feel that they are not
sports bottles and some baby bottles, andable to spend the money to buy everything
contains Bisphenol A, a known hormone disruptororganic. Here is the Environmental Working
that has recently been linked to a wide variety ofGroup's list for the top 13 foods that are the
health disorders, including heart disease, diabetes,MOST important to buy organic, because the
obesity, some types of cancer and childhoodconventional versions contain the most pesticide
hyperactivity disorders. With so many provenresidues. They are (in order) Peaches, Apples,
risks already documented, it's hard not to imagineSweet Bell Peppers, Celery, Nectarines,
what supposed "safe" plastic is going to be next!Strawberries, Cherries, Lettuce, Grapes -
There are so many eco friendly alternatives toImported, Pears, Spinach, Potatoes and Carrots.
plastic baggies, why not skip the potential