Archive for reusable lunch tote
Eco-School Cuts Trash By 46 Percent with Waste-Free Lunch Challenge
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Anne Hathaway Public School green students recently participated in the Waste-Free Lunch Challenge and the results were impressive. Anne Hathaway Public School is located in Stratford, Ontario (that’s right, Justin Bieber’s hometown), with students from kindergarten to grade 6. “The Waste-Free Lunch Challenge is an elementary school program developed by the Recycling Council of Ontario in partnership with Metro Ontario Inc. and Tetra Pak Canada. The goal of the program is to help schools decrease the amount of garbage they produce and to educate students, staff and parents about waste reduction.” Twenty participating schools will win $1,000 and Anne Hathaway is in contention (good luck!).
According to the Recycling Council of Ontario, “School lunches are a major source of waste in Ontario with the average student’s lunch generating a total of 30 kilograms of waste per school year, or an average of 8500 kilograms (18,700 lbs) of waste per school per year.”
During the week prior to the challenge, Anne Hathaway Public School conducted a pre-audit of their waste which equated to 15.42 kilograms of garbage. Then during Waste Reduction Week from October 17 to October 22, 2011, Anne Hathaway’s green students brought waste-free lunches to school which resulted in a waste reduction to 8.27 kilograms. That’s a 46 percent decrease in waste and 7.15 kilograms of garbage that didn’t end up in a landfill.
The Stratford Gazette spoke to Tarra Green, the teacher that spearheaded and organized this green initiative at the school who said: “It’s important for the kids to take care of the Earth; they are in charge of their future.” It’s commendable that teachers like Tarra Green are inspiring and encouraging students to make greener choices for a sustainable future.
Packing a waste-free lunch is simple and can be accomplished through these 5 easy steps:
1. Pack food in reusable lunch containers
2. Wash and reuse real silverware and cloth napkins. Say no to plastic cutlery and disposable napkins!
3. Store juice, milk, water or other beverages in a reusable and sustainable BPA-free bottle
4. Control food portions to ensure that there are no ‘leftovers’ to dispose of; compost any scraps
5. Pack it all in a reusable lunch bag or tote
Waste Reduction Week is already set for next year – October 15 to 21, 2012. Let’s hope all elementary schools follow the lead of Anne Hathaway Public School and participate in the Waste-Free Lunch Challenge in 2012. If one school in one week can almost cut their waste in half, imagine what communities of schools across Ontario can accomplish.
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Planet Forward is an online retailer of ethically-made, earth-friendly products designed for everyday use with a distinctly urban feel. Products include reusable stainless steel bottles, stainless steel thermal travel mugs, waste-free lunch bags, reusable shopping bags, Make-it-Yourself toxin-free Green Cleaning kits, organic fashions and other accessories. SALE 50% OFF ALL PRODUCTS – SHOP NOW !
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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‘.
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Green Tip Of The Week – Pack Waste-Free Lunches
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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:
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