A tremendous amount of waste is generated from school lunches, but there are ways to reduce that waste as some parents are finding.
Reducing Waste
As environmental awareness takes hold, some parents are encouraging their children to think green.
“We wanted the girls to get the idea that everyone could do their part, that’s why we started greening their lunches,” says Alexandra Horning, Merrickville resident and mother of two. Horning started when her eldest daughter Taylor was starting kindergarten; she’s now in grade four.
“When I was in Kindergarten I was the only one who didn’t have garbage to take home, now there are a couple of other kids like me,” says nine-year old Taylor.
Both Taylor and her sister Peyton, take their lunches in a series of plastic containers that lock securely but are easy to open and close.
Meanwhile more and more schools are implementing zero waste policies, meaning that any garbage the children generate from their snack and lunches has to go home. It’s a positive step.
“The policy is encouraging parents to use containers that can be used over and again,” says Jeannie Warnock, Green Party candidate for Leeds and Grenville.
So how can parents go about greening their children’s lunches? Here are a few suggestions from the people who do it and teach it.
Green Ideas
• When choosing a lunch bag for your child make sure it’s lined with polyetheline, not PVC – advises Carolyne Brown, instructor, Children’s Environmental Health, Algonquin College. PVC can leach lead and is not recommended for young children.
• Avoid snacks that are packaged as single servings. “We always buy the large yogourt or juice containers or any other snack and decant them into the kids' plastic boxes,” says Horning.
• Certain plastics are not recommended for food storage.
“Most plastics have a recycling symbol on the bottom of the container with a number inside it, the numbers three and six shouldn’t be used for food storage,” says Dianne Oickle, public health nutritionist, Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit, Canada. The number seven is also questionable. Some plastics under that number are recyclable plastics, but it’s a ‘catch-all’ category and hard to assess for safety.
Check the symbol on the bottom of plastics you use at home or send with your child. Most of them, like the ones at the Horning household, will have a five on them but be careful when purchasing plastic containers at discount outlets, a lot of those either don’t have a rating or are a three or a seven.
• Avoid plastic bags, most of them are a number three, but if you must use a bag, recycle a clear milk bag – they’re very safe, according to Brown.
• Another packing idea is stainless steel. There are a number of environmental retailers that carry a variety of steel food storage containers for lunches. “The great thing about steel is that it lasts a very long time, much longer than plastics and is easier to clean,” says Warnock. Steel containers are more expensive but the cost is offset by their longevity.
• Children aren’t always the easiest people to feed, but most children will eat bananas if packed well. “You can get a banana guard – a plastic container in the shape of banana and it works really well,” says Brown.
• “The more fruits and vegetables you can send with your child the better, they have less packaging waste,” says Oickle. If you’re worried about pesticides, then be sure to wash and peel everything you can, but there are also a variety of fruits and vegetables known to have a low pesticide incidence. Brown recommends: Avocadoes, beets and corn, cranberry, carrots and cucumbers, mangos, kiwi, banana, sweet peas and broccoli.
Greening kids lunches won’t just reduce the amount of waste they bring home or leave at school, it’s a really good way to teach them how to be better stewards of our planet than we’ve been.
