5 easy ways families can go green when packing school lunches

Lifestyle Wednesday 16/August/2017 19:52 PM
By: Times News Service
5 easy ways families can go green when packing school lunches

While packing lunch for the children can seem like a daily grind, you can use the task as an opportunity to help kids form great lifelong habits.Here are five small ways changing your lunch-making routine can have large, positive impacts on the environment, your wallet and your kids’ health.

1. Pack with reusables. On average, a school-age child with a lunch packed in single-serve disposable materials like plastic snack bags or juice boxes generates 67 pounds of waste per school year, which equates to 18,760 pounds of lunch waste for an average-size elementary school, according to the estimates of Waste Free Lunches, a non-profit organisation in the US. Reduce your contribution to this waste and save money in the process with reusable containers.

2. The “3 Rs” — Reduce, Reuse and Recycle — are a great refrain for environmentalists, but to ensure your family’s daily habits are minimally impacting the environment, consider adopting the simple act of choosing eco friendly products. This small change automatically reduces one’s carbon footprint.

3. Buy food local. Without a doubt, the most nutrient-rich and often most cost-effective way to procure fresh produce is locally.

4. DIY grab-and-go snacks. Prepackaged snacks are often priced at a premium and rarely offer nutritious enrichment, but with just a little prep work, you can create your own healthy options more affordably.

5. Green your clean-up. Parents should seek reusable items that can both sustain kids’ rough and tough daily activities, but also survive the dishwasher. Close label reading shows that many reusable lunch containers suggest “hand washing.”