Green Living Thursday

In today's economy, many of us are cutting back. One thing more people are doing more of is packing their lunch or a picnic instead of eating out. This is a great idea for several reasons.

First, it helps you save money, which is a good thing to do anytime, no matter what the economy is doing. Secondly, it can be done very sustainably, which helps the planet. And third, you can control what you are eating by packing your own lunch. This is great for health reasons. You can use healthy, organic foods and drinks without worrying about added sugars, salts or fats. You can also control the portion size which is good for your waist line.

When packing a lunch or a picnic, here are some ways to do it sustainably. Use a re-usable carrier. There are many great, insulated re-usable carriers on the market today at a variety of prices and sizes. If you are packing foods that don't need to be kept cold, what about using an old fashioned picnic basket? You can find many of them at thrift stores or online at places like eBay. By purchasing something that is previously loved, you are now recycling as well. There are containers out there for every budget.

For your food, you will want to use re-usable containers. Again, there are many different things on the market. If you look on websites such as etsy, there are beautiful, hand crafted, reusable bags for your sandwiches and snacks. A thermos is perfect for drinks or soups. What could be better than opening a thermos of hot, homemade soup for dinner? Add a cloth napkin and real silverware, and you have yourself a sustainable lunch kit.

Avoid throw away bags, plastic wrap, plastic bags, styrofoam and tin foil. Don't use single serving containers or individually wrapped items, disposable silverware or paper napkins.

Here are some lunch waste facts from Global Stewards:

ALUMINUM FOIL -More than 20 million Hershey's kisses are wrapped with 133 square miles of foil every day.
ALUMINUM AND TIN CANS -In the time it takes you to read this sentence, more than 50,000 12-oz. aluminum cans were made.
BANANA AND ORANGE PEELS -Food debris in a landfill decompose only 25% in the first 15 years (try composting or vermiculture!)
JUICE BOXES -Most inorganic trash retains its weight, volume, and form for at least four decades.
PAPER BAGS AND NAPKINS -It is estimated that 17 trees are cut down for every ton of non-recycled paper.
PLASTIC BOTTLES, FORKS, WRAP -U.S. citizens discard 2-1/2 million plastic bottles EVERY HOUR .
STYROFOAM -U.S. citizens throw away 25 billion styrofoam cups EVERY YEAR.

Websites like reusablebags.com have a wide variety of lunch supplies. Everything from Bento boxes to insulated totes. They also have bamboo silverware, glass straws, cloth napkins and a wide variety of containers for your lunch items. A Tiffin box, a traditional container from India, is a stackable, many-tiered lunch box. It is reusable and made from stainless steel, and makes a great lunch container.

With the wide variety of items available to us, there is really no reason to be using plastic bags or any other throw away items in our lunches or picnics. While it might seem pricey initially to purchase these containers, over the long run a family that packs one lunch per day can save about $190 a year by using only reusable items. So these items quickly pay for themselves and you can feel good about packing your lunch.

With a little planning, we can create a healthy, organic, sustainable, money saving lunch which helps the planet and our bottom line.