Ironically, neither are small plastic sandwich bags which can be used over and over again for a multitude of things: snacks, organizing cubes of frozen baby food or toys, etc.
How do I make the point that the packaging of his school lunch is not trash?
Step 1. Build a Better Lunch Box or Bag
The first lunch box I had for Charlie was a six-pack cooler. Is there something about beer that says, "I throw useful things away"? I guess. When I started him at his first day care center, I brought his milk and homemade baby food in this box and gel free disposable diapers. We used cloth diapers at home, but using reusable at the center would have been too complicated because of their health regulations. My choice of disposables and homemade baby food labeled our family as "earthy crunchy" and no packaging was ever thrown out from that six-pack lunch box.
Charlie's preschool requires that kids that aren't potty trained yet be in Pull-Ups. There are no gel free alternatives on the market. There are no reusable alternatives on the market. Phooey. I do realize that early potty training would have been the eco-friendly choice here, but I am not into pushing my child to follow the development pattern of some "average". Anyway, so our family wasn't branded "earthy crunchy" and sandwich bags began to disappear from the six-pack bag.
Sharpie to the rescue. More precisely, the Whole Foods brand to the rescue.
I took a small reusable shopping bag from Whole Foods (cost=$0.79) and wrote our last name across the top. Ironically, this bag is about three times the size of the six-pack box and less than a third of the price. Fewer sandwich bags get thrown out from this Whole Foods bag because of the social implications of using a reusable bag from "Whole Paycheck". Somehow the reusable bags from Johnny's FoodMaster, Michaels, Stop and Shop, and Target (all more money that this lunch size bag from Whole Foods) don't command the same "earthy crunchy" label. Maybe that is why they appear to be reused less often outside of the grocery shopping realm.
Step 2. Go Tupperware.
Charlie's reusable sandwich box cost just over a dollar at the grocery store, less than a box of ziploc sandwich bags. I could be doing this all because I am cheap, not just eco-conscious.
Step 3. Speak out.
... not to the school, to other parents. I haven't done this yet, but I feel like explaining the simple cost cutting measures achieved by finding a way to label yourself an eco-conscious family. (SHOUTING) Do this before your child gets to Elementary School!!! ... especially if the place doesn't have a school lunch program. Or, better yet, opt out until the school adopts your cost saving politics (the politics of a good dishwasher). Just imagine the space savings at the local town or municipal dump.
Your post is a good reminder to never underestimate the power of economic incentives in changing our behaviors. Ireland's plastic bag tax (now at more than 50 cents per bag) is a great example. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/24/ireland-tax-plastic-bags
ReplyDeleteI like your suggestion in step 3. I would love for schools in my area to bring back the dishwasher (and the oven and cooktop for that matter!). Since I get to bounce around to many of the elementary schools, I see how each of them approaches lunch--and it is across the board wasteful! Not just of packaging (a neighboring county's school system uses styrofoam trays--one per child and then tossed in the trash each day!!!), but also of food. The schools that try to force nutrition by putting everything onto the child's tray for them are not getting anywhere because most of it just gets tossed. Even something as seemingly easy as peaches--yesterday I saw several kids throw away sliced peaches in plastic cups with lids because they aren't that fond of them. Ack!
ReplyDeleteI try not to let my eyes bug out of my head too much as I observe this stuff. And in terms of changing it, one parent I know said it's an uphill battle--in Arlington a group of parents lobbied for years just to switch out styrofoam trays for compostable paper trays. My question was like yours, Dom--what about just washing the dishes like they did only a few years ago?
Wow, I feel old, we had normal dishes at our high school!
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of something that happened over the weekend. My friends were nice enough to pick me up ( I still can't drive) and take me to their house and make me dinner and hang out.
We stopped at a shaws or stop and shop on the way there. They pointed out how Sunchips have a bag that is made from veggies and will decompose in 30 days. They thought I was crazy when I said you needed to put it in compost and probably add some sort of heat or something to do it. I think they thought if they left the bag of chips on their shelf long enough they would open the kitchen pantry and find a pile of chips. This leads me to when we get to the check out and we had 2 bottles of ginger ale, a box of pasta, a bag of salad, and a jar of sauce. They lady bagged them in plastic bags. I told her we didn't need a bag. they all thought I was crazy. There were 3 of us. We could totally carry them to the car. The point of my ramble, is, it was difficult for me to speak out about what I thought was a better environmental decision, even with close friends. So reaching out to a bigger audience seems kind of daunting--and frustrating to me.
Last semester, I interviewed the head of an independent school in San Francisco called, well, the San Francisco school. They had been hi-lighted in this great documentary called "When learning comes naturally". Turns out, their preschoolers use reusable glass plates and cups, and reusable utensils. When people ask him, "Aren't you afraid they'll break them?", he just explains that giving the kids (3-4 yr olds) the responsibility to take care of their things gives them the ability to do it. Empowering device, that dishwasher!
ReplyDeleteLiz, your story makes me wonder if sometimes it's easier for us to encourage others to change behaviors rather than the people we are closest to. Perhaps we aren't worried with strangers about coming across as judgmental or preachy, but with friends and relatives it's too fine a line?
ReplyDeleteAlso, have you all followed the trends at a lot of college cafeterias? Many have gotten rid of using trays because students were taking too much food and then just throwing it away. At cafeterias that have switched, students are now taking more of only what they'll eat--which is better health-wise and consumption-wise!
ReplyDelete