This green tip of the week simply involves packing a waste-free lunch for your kids or for your day at work.  Did you know that the average American school-age child throws away 67 pounds of packaging a year?  This includes plastic water bottles, sandwich baggies, and juice boxes.  With the population of kids in the US alone accounting for over 70 million, that’s over 4.6 TRILLION pounds of packaging.

Here’s some other lunch waste facts courtesy of globalstewards.org:

Plastic Bottles:  U.S. citizens discard 2.5 million plastic bottles EVERY HOUR

Aluminum Foil:  More than 20 million Hershey’s kisses are wrapped with 133 square miles of foil every day

Aluminum and Tin Cans:  In the time it takes you to read this sentence, more than 50,000 12-oz. aluminum cans were made

Juice Boxes:  Most inorganic trash retains its weight, volume, and form for at least four decades

Paper Bags and Napkins:  It is estimated that 17 trees are cut down for every ton of non-recycled paper

Styrofoam:  U.S. citizens throw away 25 billion Styrofoam cups EVERY YEAR

It’s time to cut down on lunchtime environmental impact and pack waste-free lunches.  Here’s the uncomplicated part, it’s as easy as these 5 steps:

1. Pack food in reusable lunch containers (sandwiches, fruits, veggies, treats…whatever the stomach growls for)
2. Wash and reuse real silverware and cloth napkins if needed
3. Store juice, water or other beverages in a reusable BPA free stainless steel bottle
4. Control food portions to ensure that there are no ‘leftovers’ to dispose of
5. Pack it all in a reusable lunch bag or tote!

And that’s it.  You have a waste-free lunch for your kids or a waste-free lunch for work.   Once you get in the habit of packing waste-free for lunch, it’s really no more difficult than packing disposables, just better for the planet.  Plus, you save money over the long term by cutting back on the amount of disposables you’re purchasing.  If you are looking for a healthy waste-free lunch, check out this article “Tips for Packing a Nutritious, Waste-Free Lunch‘ for more suggestions.

Many schools are declaring waste-free lunch days in their effort to reduce waste.  Schools in Ontario have launched the ‘waste-free lunch challenge‘ where parents and students learn through education and apply waste-free lunch practices with a chance to win a private concert for their school.  It motivates the students, builds awareness and helps protect mother earth.  The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has several wonderful educational posters to help schools encourage waste-free lunches, which you can download here.

So next time it’s noon and time for lunch, cut out the disposables and choose reusable.  Follow this green tip of the week for planet-healthy, waste-free lunches.

Planet Forward has a special offer for anyone living greener and converting to a waste-free lunch.  25% off anything in our store including our reusable Neoprene lunch bag and stainless steel bottles.  Enter coupon code wastefreelunch25 to redeem 25% off during checkout.

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