My cousin Leah helps the PTA of the school her daughter attends in San Diego and she sent me this cool list filled with great ideas on how to reduce trash from bag lunches and save money (how many ziplocs and brown bags have you bought?) Check out these items, from a cool reusable lunch bag to safe water bottles. Save the Earth. And save money.  And thanks, Leah.

Creating a Waste-less Lunch

 Please join us in our efforts to teach our children to care for the environment.

 The average elementary school-age child generates an estimated 67 pounds of waste per school year. That equates to 18,760 pounds of lunch waste for just one average-size elementary school.  Finding alternatives to plastic lunch baggies and juice boxes would be a simple, easy step in the right direction to make sure we are not only providing a healthy lunch for our children, but a healthy planet as well.

 Below are some alternatives to plastic lunch baggies and disposable drink containers.  Give them a try!

 Lap top lunchbox:

http://www.laptoplunches.com

This system also works in some other flat, briefcase style lunchboxes.

You can buy this on line, or also at Whole Foods.

 Or another style at http://www.lunchopolis.com/index.htm

If you can’t get away from using a baggie- try these instead.  There is no zip closure, but they are good for snacks and sandwiches.

Zip lock, among other brands also makes a wide variety of re-useable containers which you can typically in grocery stores.

 Watch out for Wrap-n-Mats.  They are so easy to use to wrap sandwiches, over and over and over again

A great alternative to plastic lunch baggies.  Wrap a sandwich in this, and then it unfolds to be a place mat.

 Thermos has a good insulated snack/food jar with many designs.  These are great for egg salad and fruit, anything you want to keep hot or cold.

Drink Containers:

 www.kleankanteen.com

18 oz bottles in both stainless steel or polypropylene (#5) which is considered a safer, non leaching plastic.

www.thermos.com

The Funtainer bottle by Thermos.  This is an insulated stainless steel drink container with a plastic pop-up straw.  This one is great on warm days for keeping drinks cool.

And finally, don’t forget cloth napkins and reusable forks and spoons.

 One more bonus of the waste-less lunch, aside from helping our environment- in the long run, it actually saves your family money too.