School days are almost upon us. This year, I challenge you to think of
creative ways to reduce your footprint when it comes to school-time
lunches.
Felice Farran dreamed of doing the same thing for her family - she was a
woman on a mission. Her challenge; how do you make your child's school lunch
greener and less wasteful? According to the Litter Free Lunch website, "A
household of four that replaces paper napkins with reusable cloth ones could
save $70 per year or more on napkin costs, and reduce their waste by up to 40
pounds per year. If every household made this shift, we could prevent 1.5
million tons of paper napkin waste from entering the landfill each year."
A dedicated recycler and "greenee", Felice had been utilizing reusable
containers for her children's lunch box. Then she discovered fabric as a
solution instead of the very wasteful paper and plastic that fills most
children's lunch boxes. She created, with her partner Megan
Wojtyla,
reusable cloth sandwich bags and napkins made of cotton. This was the first step
to opening a green-minded solution for the resource-wasteful containers most
Americans use for their lunch.
Armed with determination, Felice and Megan have been changing kids lunches
for the better across the United States with their enterprising and creative
business, Litter Free
Lunch, where they sell online their unique solutions to help green your and
your children's lunches.
In the above photo you see how I assembled a lunch for my kiddo utilizing the
products Litter Free
Lunch sent me to review. Both my nine-year-old and I love the idea and feel
it is an effective way to reduce all that waste we used before. Better yet - it
was easy to do.
Below is a common sense list from the Litter Free Lunch website (http://litterfreelunch.com) which
describes tips to keep your lunches litter free:
Tips for a Litter Free Lunch
- Replace brown paper bags with a reusable lunch box or bag;
- Swear off plastic bags and use stainless steel food containers;
- Switch from disposable paper napkins to reusable cloth napkins;
- Give up the habit of disposable water bottles and replace it with a reusable
stainless steel water bottle; - Skip disposable plastic cutlery and pack a reusable spoons or forks;
- Save money by avoiding individually wrapped or packaged items like yogurt,
cheese, cookies or crackers. Buy larger sizes and pack portions in reusable
containers. It's green and saves green!
Litter Free Lunch has become an amazing way to bring awareness to parents
across the nation on how to prevent waste. Felice and Megan participate as a
sponsor in the national Green My Lunchbox campaign.
Be sure to follow Litter
Free Lunch on Twitter - http://twitter.com/litterfreelunch and
Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Litter-Free-Lunch-Cloth-Napkins/93653218197.
The Litter Free Go Green Trio retails for
$19.99 and I think it would make a wonderful green gift for your favorite
parent. Felice and Megan gave me a set of napkins and stainless container when I
met them, so I used it in exchange for for my review. However, you should know
that I really do like the products and think its a fantastic idea for reducing
lunch waste. I would have purchased it myself had they not given it to me, I
think it is a great product!
- http://www.thecasualgardener.com,
- The Green Blog - http://www.gardeningnude.com, or
- The Garden Blog - http://thecasualgardener.blogspot.com
Filed under: Green Family, Save Money
Tags: environment, green, green living, litter free lunch, lunch, school lunch, sustainable, waste
Fantastic! I've been packing waste-free lunches and really enjoy it. So much in fact that I started a blog about it. It's become second nature, and a fun hobby too! :) This is a great post, spread the word - it's hip to be green. :p
www.anotherlunch.com