Visit a school in the evening and chances are that you will get to see a lot of lying around the school yards and the most striking part about this garbage is that it will mostly be containing a lot of food or other leftovers from children’s lunch bags.

Juice boxes, aluminum cans, wrappers of granola bar, drink pouches, and plastic bags for sandwiches are a few of them.

Estimates say that each child who brings disposable lunch along with him to school everyday will be responsible for generating waste of about 67 pounds for every school year.

This equals to a yearly waste of almost 18,760 pounds for elementary schools which are of average size. Although recycling bins are present in most of the school yards, students of these elementary schools rarely use them correctly. This leads to the formation of garbage. 

Tips:
In today’s busy world, moms naturally prefer these juice boxes, disposable utensils and snack packs which are pre-packaged as they offer an easy and quick solution towards fulfilling their child’s lunch box requirements everyday.

But, by incorporating a few changes in this, moms can provide their child with a waste free and healthy lunch which will also be enjoyed by their child as well as result in saving of few bucks too. 

A few tips for helping these busy moms in preparing a green lunch in a minimum amount of time are:
•    Food items should be purchased in good quantities as it helps in saving money.
 
•    Prefer getting the lunch packed during the night itself so that morning time is saved.
 
•    Pack reusable forks and spoons rather than going for disposable ones.
 
•    Buy some sustainable, reusable, dishwasher safe and recyclable lunch containers for packing environment friendly and nutritious lunches. This is ideal for work and school going members of busy families.
 
•    Provide a reusable bottle for encouraging the family members towards drinking water rather than going for disposable juice boxes.
 
•    Prefer cloth napkins over paper ones. These are available in great designs and style which will be enjoyed by your child.

•    Extra servings can be made during dinner time which can be preserved in small containers for being put into lunch boxes.
 
•    A number of school districts and states offer programs as well as lunch and recycling tips. Enquire its availability in the school where your child studies.
 
These tips can be extremely handy towards reducing waste food and garbage which is unacceptable from the environmental consideration.

Click here to read Part 2 of this course.