Planet Forward recently delivered a green living workshop on waste-free lunches to school kids in the local community.  What amazed me most was just how much they already knew – for 11-year-olds, they were more educated on the environment than most of my neighbors.  I find it very encouraging that today’s youth is concerned with the protection of the planet and more importantly, that they recognize that knowledge is power and they were there to learn.

The workshop was part of the Eco-league Youth Forum and Learning for a Sustainable Future – a non-profit organization created to integrate sustainability education into the classroom .  Our job was to educate and hopefully inspire kids to change their own habits as well as those of their parents and families, at school and at home.

When we asked the students how many of their families recycled, all kids proudly raised their hands.  When we asked who knew what a waste-free lunch was – all the hands shot up again.  These kids were eager and their responses were not only correct, but well-informed.  I was surprised at the level of participation from the class – when I was their age, truthfully, I kind of hid at the back of the classroom and avoided participating in classroom discussion whenever possible.  These kids were intelligent and attentive.  Some of the kids even showed up with reusable bottles, one girl had a SIGG bottle which I examined in case she had the version lined with trace BPA, fortunately, she had the new one.

Our workshop focused on zero waste lunches.  We brought Planet Forward sustainable stainless steel bottles and reusable lunch bags, added a reusable cloth napkin, real cutlery and a reusable container to demonstrate how easy it was to pack a waste-free lunch.  It literally is seconds of effort with zero packaging and zero waste – a true waste-free lunch.  The numbers speak for themselves, so to help educate, we relied on some of the details featured in my previous blog called ‘10 Disturbing facts on how much we waste‘.

After the alarming reality of the numbers subsided, the shock further registered when I advised the kids that Evian water is actually shipped from France.  So not only is it the environmental cost of manufacturing the plastic bottled and the fact that it takes 3 times as much water to produce 1 bottle of water, but it’s the carbon emissions and unnecessary burning of fossil fuels to deliver that plastic bottle of water to a store nearby.

We ended our session with a multiple choice trivia game with questions covered during our workshop.  I’m delighted to report that most students scored 9 out of 10 or 10 out of 10 on the test.  We split them into teams of 3 and the winning team’s members each won a waste-free lunch starter kit with our reusable lunch tote and 500ml stainless steel bottle (pictured).  No student left empty-handed, if they didn’t win the waste-free lunch trivia game, they still received a small reusable bag from us as a thank you for attending.

It truly was a pleasure to be around such eager students.  Their minds are like sponges and they’ve absorbed a lot already.  These kids were more than just listening, they were interactive, and it was very rewarding for us.  It’s motivating to know that the green living movement will be spearheaded by these kids in the not too distant future.  I for one am encouraged by their level of eco-awareness and readiness to do what they can to help change the world.  Some of these kids are on their school’s eco-team and even attended eco-camp!  Awesome.