Go Green Even While Packing Your Lunch

While everybody and everything around you is going green, why shouldn’t your lunches as well. Pack lunches for your children or to your office in eco-friendly lunch boxes and wraps. A typical packed lunch contains a copious amount of plastic and paper waste that cannot be reused or recycled.

Paper napkins, juice boxes, plastic bags and cutlery are included in this huge amount of garbage, which ends up either in landfills or the oceans. Even though it was found that most offices and schools don’t have amazing garbage segregating and recycling programs in the US, you can still cut down the amount of waste produced by packing an eco-friendly lunch.

Reusable cloth lunch bags and lunch containers

Instead of using paper bags and feeling guilty about disposing them after one use, you can switch to using reusable lunch containers or bags. Since you’re trying to be eco-friendly avoid using totes or containers that have vinyl, lead or PVC in them. Quite a few varieties of trendy cloth bags and eco-friendly lunch containers are available in the market.

Use sandwich wrappers made out of seed paper or recyclable paper

Invest in a quality reusable sandwich container or wrapper to pack your food in, instead of carrying them around in plastic bags. You can find seed paper sandwich wrappers in grocery stores along with wholesale reusable bags. You could also make your own sandwich wrapper by utilizing recyclable materials. Eliminating plastic bag usage will help save a lot of trash output in the long run.

Stop buying individual prepacked snacks

Even though it seems much more convenient to toss one of those prepackaged foods and snacks into your lunch bag, you must avoid it as is one of the main factors for creating so much waste. Instead, go in for reusable snack containers that let you carry many items, from pretzels to cut-up fruit pieces. You will also save a lot of money by not investing in individual prepackaged foods regularly.

Invest in a thermos and a reusable bottle

Instead of throwing out the left overs you can send them for lunch by packing it all in a thermos. By investing in a good thermos you can pack meals like soups and gravy’s, which will remain hot even during winter months. Stop buying disposable water bottles and instead get a bottle that you can constantly refill. You could either buy a BPA-free plastic bottle or get a stainless steel one for cheap prices.

Source: http://glastonbury.patch.com/articles/how-to-pack-an-eco-friendly-lunch-79b4e01c