Clare Josa, from veg-box recipes posted a great article; 5 steps to a greener lunchbox. I’m going to pick up on her point about packaging and expand on it in this article.
Many people wrap sandwiches in clingfilm, take a packet of crisps and add individually wrapped chocolate bars or yogurt for lunch. At the end of the day, that’s quite a lot of rubbish to throw away.
Now multiply this with the number of lunches you eat in a year and you can start to see how much you are contributing to landfill.
Many children enjoy Baby Bel cheese, yogurt drinks in plastic tubes and all sorts of highly packaged foods that end up with the contents picked at and the packaging thrown in the bin.
Here are some ideas for a waste free lunch.
DITCH THE CLINGFILM
Sandwiches can be wrapped in paper bags, aluminium foil or grease proof paper. All of these can be reused and finally recycled or composted.
Instead of buying new clingfilm and plastic sandwich bags reuse items you have at home instead. If you keep packaging such as the inner bags from breakfast cereals, vegetable bags and sugar and flour packaging, you’ll never need to buy new again.
BOTTLES AND BOXES
To reduce the need for wrapping items, a laptop lunch box, although plastic, is durable and will last for many years.
If you want to avoid plastic altogether, then opt for a stainless steel Tifin Tin.
Drinks can be taken in a reusable bottle, and topped up with water throughout the day. For pure water on the go, try a bottle with built in filter.
BUY IN BULK
You will have less packaging to throw away if you buy in bulk. Buy a large bag of crisps instead of individual ’snack packs’ and decant a few into a small container with a lid. You can do the same with yogurt and take a teaspoon with you so you don’t need to grab a plastic disposable spoon. Large bags of dried fruit, nuts and seeds can be divided up for a healthier alternative to crisps.
MAKE YOUR OWN
If you do a batch of cooking at the weekend, you will remove the need for packaging from biscuits, cakes, cheese straws, flapjacks and cereal bars. These can be frozen in small portions and you can take out what you need in the morning – it will be defrosted by lunchtime. This ensures less waste and you can make your lunch as healthy as you like!
USE NATURE’S PACKAGING
Many fruits and vegetables do not need packaging because they arrive in their own! Apples, bananas, kiwis and cherry tomatoes make healthy, waste free lunches. Remember to compost the leftovers.
About the author
Rachelle Strauss, dubbed the Green Goddess, writes for various magazines about green and environmental issues. She writes down to earth, honest and informative articles to inspire and empower the reader. Look out for her first book to be published late summer 2009 – "Self Sufficiency: Household Cleaning", by New Holland Publishers. She lives with her husband and their daughter in semi-rural England and you can follow her family’s adventures towards achieving zero waste on her My Zero Waste website
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