The little bit of trash generated from each leftover meal or packed meal is easy to ignore, unless you can recall these reasons to limit your waste.
When you’re packing lunches or on-the-go snacks, wrapping up leftovers, transporting food for a picnic or a camping trip, it’s tempting to use individually packaged foods, plastic wrap, aluminum foil, and disposable plastic containers. But if you’ve ever had lunch in a school cafeteria, where you can watch how quickly the trashcans fill up with everyone’s wrappers, empty milk cartons and other disposables, going waste-free seems like an increasingly important mission.
By investing in reusable products in place of disposables, you can cut down significantly on the waste you generate. To see how quickly you make a difference, stock up on reusable plastic, metal and glass containers in various sizes, travel bottles, cloth or reusable bags for packing sandwiches and snacks, and cloth napkins — you’ll find you’re reducing your waste footprint instantly.
Need more good reasons? Here are five:
1. Save Money
Although buying good-quality reusable containers might initially seem like a big expense, you’ll quickly see savings over time. For instance, if you’re paying $1 for each carton of organic milk, think of how much cheaper it would be to spend $15 on an insulated bottle and be able to refill it from the tap, or the more economically priced gallon jug of milk at home. The packages of zip-top bags and plastic wrap also quickly add up, outweighing the initial purchase of a sturdy container that can be used again and again. Portioning your own snacks from a bulk package also saves money over buying individually wrapped versions.
2. Reduce Landfills
creates an average of 67 pounds of trash each school year. If everyone did their part to incorporate reusable containers into their packed lunches, it could really make an impact.
3. Better Nutrition
cheese crackers for starters.
4. Conserve Resources
The fewer disposable packages purchased, the fewer made. This means fewer raw materials and less energy used in production, less pollution and fuel to transport it, and maybe even one less car trip to the store for you to purchase it.
5. Educate Our Kids
properly dispose of waste, recycling and food. They’re sure to get on board, particularly if you let them pick out their own reusables!
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