GREENING the Lunch Zone

Several weeks ago I noticed a Twitter snippet that All Adither had written. It went something like this... For someone who likes to think of herself as GREEN, I sure use a lot of Ziploc bags. Her thought really resonated with me, because I am also trying to live a more responsible GREEN life (yet use a lot of Ziploc bags!) and want to teach BOY & GIRL to respect our environment and planet. There is nothing like packing lunches day after day to show yourself how much plastic waste you are creating for the world. That is something that I am determined to change.

I was also horrified when I read: Plastic Ocean: The great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Recently in BOY & GIRL's preschool newsletter, there was an article about GREENING THE LUNCH ZONE.

Some school lunch waste facts:

1. It has been said that the average school-age child using a disposable lunch generates 67 pounds of waste per school year.
2. Juice boxes - Most inorganic trash retains its weight, volume and form for at least four decades.
3. Paper bags and napkins - It is estimated that 17 trees are cut down for every ton of non-recycled paper.
4. Plastic bottles, forks and wraps - In the U.S. alone, we discard 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour.
5. Styrofoam - In the U.S. we throw away 25 billion cups every year.

Here are some ways to GREEN-UP your child's lunch box:

1. Pack food in reusable containers (avoid plastic bags, plastic wrap, aluminum foil and prepackaged foods.)
2. Use a refillable drink bottle.
3. Pack a cloth napkin instead of a paper one.
4. Use reusable utensils instead of disposable ones.
5. Use a lunchbox instead of a paper bag.

If you have some great ideas for GREENING the Lunch Zone, please share in the comments. Also, does anyone have good ideas for making children's birthday parties more GREEN? The juice boxes...the water bottles... My goal is to be packing GREEN, trash free lunches for my family by January 2009. What about you?

Here are some great web sites to get you thinking GREEN:

http://earthseeds.org/trashless_lunch_box
(Great site for ideas on where you can purchase trash free lunch supplies.)

http://greenlivingideas.com/kids/tips-for-packing-a-nutritious-waste-free-lunch.html
(Tips for packing waste free lunches and a cost analysis of how much you can save by going trash free.)

http://www.wastefreelunches.org/
(General information on going waste free.)

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