School Lunches

 

 

 

 

 

When I went to order some bamboo utensils from UKonserve (click here for link), I read some statistics on their website that really shocked me. Each day I sit with my students at lunch time. I am amazed by the amount of food and trash waste that is mindlessly thrown away every day but I had no idea of just how much was being discarded.

*Children's lunches create 3.5 billion pounds of garbage each year
*18,000 lbs of trash is generated each year from one-average sized elementary school
*It takes a 15 year old tree to produce 700 brown paper bags
*The average child generates 67 lbs of lunchtime trash each year
*Trash is often mistaken for food and eaten by sea life
*The US has 6% of the population and produces half of the world's garbage
*38 billion plastic water bottles end up in the landfill each year
*Plastic water bottles take 700 years before they start to decompose

What can we do about this? There are some very simple steps to take that would drastically lower this statistic and save you money.

1) Use a reusable lunch bag or box VS.paper bags

2) Use cloth napkins VS paper napkins

3) Use a thermos, lunch bot, or some type of reusable container VS. foil or ziploc bags BECAUSE: The Center of Ecoliteracy reported that "One average elementary school student eating homemade lunches is estimated to generate between 45-90 lbs of ziplock bags, foil pouches and other packaging waste each year, roughly equivalent to the body weight of a third to sixth grader".

4) Make food from scratch and/or from the bulk section VS. processed food in prepackaged, single serving bags

5) Reusable utensils VS plastic utensils

6) Use stainless steal water bottle VS juice boxes or disposable plastic water bottle

Week 1 Count Down

The boys have looked forward to opening a new card every morning. With an unexpected parade and winter weather that moved into our town, we had to delay Day 7 to a later day. Besides that one hitch, we have enjoyed putting our electronics away to spend more time together.

Day 1: "Scavenger Hunt for your favorite candy" 

Only used candy that I could get from the bulk section.

Day 2: "French Toast and Hot Chocolate for dinner"

The Hot Chocolate we made from scratch. It was unbelievably easy and tasted so much better than the processed version in the packets.

Day 3: "After dinner we are making chocolate covered pretzels." 

Again, so easy and delicious. Sprinkles and candy we found in the bulk section. I normally try to avoid foods with artificial colors or flavors at all costs, however I do allow them to eat them on special occasions.

Day 4: "Stop at Goodwill and pick up a new board game."

The boys picked out 'Encore' which is a singing board game. We had a lot of great laughs since the majority of my family are not the best singers.

Day 5: "Random Act of Kindness Day: Do something nice for someone at school without being asked. We will talk about what we did at dinner "

I gave my co-worker a small gift.

Aaron gave a friend his a chocolate covered pretzel.

Noah cleaned the kitchen for Aaron.

Trey gave a friend a small gift.

Day 6: "Watch Elf with Egg Nog and Popcorn"

Day 7: Moved to future date

25 Count Down to X-mas

This time of year we are (like most families) especially busy.  Aaron has band practice, parades, banquets and concerts. Trey has wrestling practice and meets. Noah has chorus practice and concerts. Therefore, I spend a lot of time running around like a crazy woman without a lot of quality time with my family. At some point in late November, I took a step back, took some deep breaths and tried to figure out how we could continue with a crazy schedule AND still incorporate family time together.


This is why I came up with the idea of our own 25 day count down to Xmas, to run parallel with our 'experience' theme for presents. I broke down the activities as follows: 2/3 of zero waste activities (from making chocolate covered pretzels, playing a board game during dinner and eating dinner by candle light) and 1/3 of random act of kindness days. I found many great ideas online, however most were geared for young children and it was challenging to think of 25 activities teenage boys would enjoy.

I was a little apprehensive about the idea at first and  if they would feel they were too old, however they were very excited to open the first envelope on December 1. It is now the first thing they talk about in the morning and anxiously await to see what is written on the card.  The activities help remind my family of what is truly important during this time of year. Not the presents, but our family and spending quality time together.

Break from War and Christmas on the Horizen

It seems as though the excitement over a waste war has declined in our house. It has become second nature to ask for no straw at a restaurant  using reusable grocery bags at the store, bringing a zero waste lunch to school, however when my boys are at a friend's house, they seems to overindulge and not mention the waste they accumulate. We sat down, had a long talk whether they wanted to continue the waste war. They all agreed they did, but asked if we could continue December 1. They promised they would be cautious over their waste, but did not want to keep track of it until the end of the month. 

With that being said, Christmas is around the corner, and as we all know, produces a lot of waste. In fact, last year about 4 million tons of waste was accumulated in wrapping paper and shopping bags alone. I wondered, how could I continue a waste war at Christmas and still celebrate the holiday. Then I read an idea of experiences vs presents on a blog.  At first my idea of experiences, instead of actual presents, was immediately rejected by my 6th grader. After I explained in detail what this would entail, my 6th grader started to warm up to the idea. I'm not sure if my house is like others, but it seems that 2-4 weeks after Christmas, their new toys get thrown in the toy bin, never to be played with again. With each toy comes a lot of plastic packaging and waste. Instead of wasting money, resources and plastic on toys, which we will donate to Goodwill in the spring, family experiences would give us a life time of memories. 

Now, before you think this is border-lining on child abuse, like my co-worker does, they will enjoy a few gifts that can actually be opened. I asked them to make a list of experiences and I love how creative they became. This is my 6th graders list: rock climbing, Air and Space Museum, Jumpology, movies, water park, WWE Wrestling Match (not going to happen), NY Giants game (I wish), camping, obstacle courses and laser dodging. I haven't ironed out all of the details and how many experiences I will choose, but we will be able to enjoy Christmas all year round. 

Week ending Oct 25 and Nov 1

 

 

 

 Week of October 19-25

 

Week of October 26- November 1

 

Our two week count:

 

Week 19-25

Maggie- 1, plastic wrap. I had a perfect week until the last day of the week. I went out on a date with my husband and the restaurant brought out our silverware in plastic wrap.

Aaron- 4, dentist bag (2 items inside with plastic) and small plastic cup

Noah- 2, hot chocolate cup and a soda (not pictured)

Trey- 2, rice crispy treat package and hot chocolate cup (both not pictured)

Community Trash: Package and 3 milk tabs

 

 

Week 26-1

Maggie- 1, twix package

Aaron- 4, Game package and candy wrappers

Noah- 3, candy bar wrappers

Trey- 5, candy bar wrappers and 2 plastic bracelets

 

I predict that this coming week we will have a lot of candy wrappers in our waste count.  I won the first week and as our fun activity we went back to Carter Mountain. We remembered that the staff at Carter Mountain are willing to put fresh donuts in containers that people bring from home, which eliminates using their plastic packages. I came prepared and brought my own glass container for donuts (picture below). We also brought our own bag to collect apples. I won the second week as well and have not decided where we will go for our fun activity. It will depend on the weather this week. We are hoping this great weather will last a few more weeks before we see snow.

 

 





Vacation is Over and Zero Waste Toothbrush/Tooth Tabs

 

 

 

 

 

Due to a trip to California with my husband, and my children being spoiled by their grandma back in Virginia, we paused the war for 2 weeks. Although I was very cautious during my trip of daily waste and processed food intake, the boys went a little crazy. They consumed Doritos, marshmallows, school lunches etc. Because this is such an infrequent occurrence, I tried not to become overwhelmed by their eating habits that week. I am just grateful that my mom spent a week with my boys and took great care of them while I was gone.

Now that I am home, it's a different story. We spent the day today making granola bars, bread, dinner for most of the week, pumpkin muffins and chocolate chip cookies. Although it is time consuming, I do enjoy cooking with my sons and spending quality time with them in the kitchen.

The picture above is of the 100% compostable toothbrush and plastic free toothpaste we use. The toothbrush works great. It is made of bamboo and when we are finished we can throw it in our compost pile. The toothpaste took a little time to get used to. At first, it tasted a bit salty and it was strange to chew a tablet. Now if I use regular toothpaste it is too strong and burns my mouth. There are no toxic ingredients in the tooth tabs compared to regular toothpaste. I am glad there are companies such as Lush that care about our health and the environment.

Trey and I Win!

Weekly Round Up:

Maggie: 2  Pictured - *black tea packaging, creamer tab

Aaron: 4   Pictured- apple juice, Not pictured- plate, fork, knife (during his band competition)

Noah: 6    Pictured- fork, knife (forgot lunch at home), Not pictured- school tray, 3 sodas (From a school dance, yikes!)

Trey: 2    Not pictured- lollipop stick and wrapper

Community Trash: *3 tea packaging, milk tab and aluminum foil (no one is claiming the aluminum foil so we are calling it community trash) 

* My boys love to drink tea. Until recently I was not aware of the dangers of drinking non organic tea. After doing research, we ordered 4 different types of Numi Tea. It is a wonderful organic tea, which has no artificial flavoring, natural flavors, pesticides or GMO's. 

We are not organizing a fun weekly activity this weekend because I am flying to California on Wednesday and will be gone for a week. My mom will be taking care of them and I am positive they will experience MANY fun activities with her.