The waste-free school lunch box

The children are back to school and you are wondering what to put in the lunch or snack box each day. All those easy ‘snack’ bars and drinks are all very well and convenient, but the packaging not only creates millions of tons of rubbish, it also means that we are cutting down trees and creating more ‘stuff’ to make them.

Here are five simple ways to pack a Waste-Free-Lunch:

1.    Don’t pack items in plastic or paper bags; use a lunchbox or a reusable cloth bag. You can find the fab ‘Boc’n roll sandwich carrier on http://soy-eco.com/en/
2.    Don’t pack sandwiches and fruit in plastic or foil; use reusable containers such as a small Tupperware box. Also ask your children to store their apple cores so you can use them as compost in the garden. Only 25% of all landfill food debris decomposes in the first 15 years
3.    Use a thermos or reusable drink bottle. Don’t buy those single-use cartons or cans. In the time it takes you to read this 50,000 aluminium cans have been made.
4.    Please don’t give your children a paper napkin; it is estimated that 17 trees are cut down for every ton of non-recycled paper. Cloth napkins are perfect and can be washed and re-used time and again.
5.    Don’t give them throwaway plastic forks and spoons. Ikea and other stores have some great children’s cutlery that can be used at home or in the lunch-box.

Image credit: wendy copley @FlickR