Waste Free Lunches

Good Wednesday Morning!

Every morning Tara and I pack lunch for our kids. The kids' school encourages parents to pack waste-free lunches. We want to encourage you to ask your school to do the same--to spread the word that garbage cannot just be reduced but totally eliminated at lunch time.

Here are some of my kids' typical lunch contents and how they are packaged:

• sandwich (wrapped in a wrap-n-mat) [which we sell at CarrotSeed)
• soup (packed in thermos)
• yogurt (purchased in quart-size from the store and served in a reusable tupperware container)
• applesauce (ditto)
• cheese booty (purchased in large bag, served in tupperware)
• hummus (purchased in pint or quart size and packed in tupperware)
• oreos (purchased in large pack, packed in tupperware)
• carrots (ditto)
• an apple or orange (no packaging at all)
• cloth napkin
• real utensils to eat any of the above

Our kids are in the habit of bringing all their tupperware home and the utensils. We wash them out and they are good to go the next day. The key to this is staying away from all those snack-size, lunch-size packages - 4 oreos, small bags of carrots, small yogurts, etc.

Our kids' school also has compost bins outside each building. Encourage your school to do the same--this way the leftover banana peels, orange rinds, etc. can go right in the compost. If your school won't go along with composting, then ask your child to bring his/her leftovers home and you can compost them yourself!

Good luck. Love to hear your comments!

Jerry