Creating Plastic Free Lunches This School Year

As the new school year gets underway, many people will be making lunches for their children, on a daily basis. Along with all this lunch making comes the question of what the best way to pack it up is. While many people reach for a box of plastic bags, it may not be the best option out there, especially for the family that is trying to reduce their plastic bag usage.

You can still get your lunches made just right and do it in an environmentally friendly way. The first thing you will need to do is make sure you arm your pantry with the right tools to get through the year. Here are a few tips that can help you pack a plastic bag-free lunch for your student.

Get reusable lunch bags! There are also many reusable snack containers that can be reused all year long. We at reusethisbag.com sell a customizable insulated lunch bag that’s a hit with the ‘pack your own lunch’ crowd.

Some more tips for make lunches completely plastic free:

Opt for natural wax paper to wrap your sandwiches in, if you don’t want to use reusable containers. Most health food stores offer natural wax paper, which is biodegradable and can be put into the recycling bin after each use.

Skip purchasing single serve items, like applesauce and other fruit cups, opting instead for larger jars. This will help you avoid using plastic, as you put single servings in reusable containers each day.

Send real utensils in lunches, rather than plastic disposables. If you don’t trust sending your good silverware, pick up a couple of forks and spoons at the store or thrift store that can be used just to be packed in lunches.

These tips work for the adult lunch as well as for your child’s lunch. As people learn more about the unhealthy effects that plastics have on our health and environment, they are searching for ways to reduce their use of it. Since you may be making school lunches for 185 days or more this school year, you can save a lot of plastic by opting for more environmentally friendly options.

Sunday, August 29th, 2010 at 8:39 pm and is filed under Blog Bites. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.