lunch

One great way to budget is to pack your food and bring it to work or school. By packing zero-waste meals instead of having to buy paper bags filled with disposable items and avoiding eating out on lunch breaks, your lunches can cost a lot cheaper. Reusable lunches can be 35% cheaper, and Julia Layton from howstuffworks calculated that by making $4 meals at home versus $10 meals eating out everyday at work could save you $1500 a year! Here’s some easy swaps and where you can find them!

Plastic/Paper Bag -> Reusable Lunch Bag

Although paper bags can technically be recycled, they cannot be if it gets contaminated with food and still consumes resources. Reusable bags can last a long time to get through your child’s education, or the next 30 years at your job. Either way, it saves plenty of waste from going to the landfill.

Anything can become a reusable lunch bag, but insulated lunch bags can help to make sure your food items stay cool for longer. Here’s some ideas on what to use and where to buy them:

Reusable Grocery bag- When you’re not buying groceries, use the same bag to hold your lunch items in.
Insulated lunch bag- These can be bought at various stores including Target, grocery stores, and other markets. Depending on how long you stay out without access to a fridge, you can buy a more insulated one with an ice pack to keep things cool.
Thrift Stores- If you go to thrift stores like Good Will, you may be able to find cool, vintage lunch boxes for a cheap price and rock the antique look while being sustainable.
Online Markets- Some online websites like Poshmark and shopgoodwill.com people sell items they no longer need. You may be able to find cute, fashionable lunch bags at a cheaper price while not having to consume new resources!

Disposable Containers -> Reusable Containers

Disposable containers can add up to a lot of waste and if its homemade, there’s no need for extra waste! Here’s some ideas for reusable containers:

Stainless Steel Container- These are great to make sure your items stay sealed tight, especially for soupy items. These cannot be microwaved, but if you keep a plate at your office, then you can heat items on a separate plate or bowl. These can be bought in all different sizes at Package Free Shop and they carry containers from Clean Kanteen as well.
Plastic- Although plastic is not always the best option, reusable plastic containers for those who may have butter fingers and drop items often, this may be a good option for you then. Many of these you can find at your grocery stores by brands such as Ziploc. These are generally the lightest container, but make sure the container is considered microwave safe as well. If not, the plastic may melt and expose you to toxic chemicals.
Glass- There are multiple brands such as Pyrex and Prep that sell glass reusable containers. However, keep in mind that this type of glass most of the time cannot be recycled. Most of the times these containers have been treated with chemicals so that they can withstand high temperatures, hence they can be placed in the oven or in the microwave without breaking. If you break your glass container, make sure that if it is heat resistant that it goes into the trash and not recycling as it is considered a contaminant.
Ceramic– These may be found at more higher-end cooking stores or even stores such as Urban Outfitters. You can also find these second hand at thrift stores, Poshmark or shopgoodwill.com. Just make sure before you buy they are microwave safe before exposing them to heat.
If you want to make sure you’re getting the best containers, check out this review by Best Products from 2019 to make sure you get your money’s worth out of your products
Many of these again you can find on Poshmark, shopgoodwill.com or any other second hand/buyback websites if you’re trying not to consume more resources.

Ziploc/Sandwich Bags and Plastic Wrap -> Reusable Food Storage Bags

Worldwide, a trillion single-use bags are made each year, meaning 2 million of them are used each minute. Plastic snack/sandwich bags do not need to be adding to that number.

These are light and easy to dispose of, but with the rising issue of single-use plastic bags, an effort needs to be made to reduce single-use baggies as well. There are multiple reusable silicon bag options. Stasher is a popular brand that is sold at Whole Foods and Package Free Shop carries them as well. The Strategist ranked the top four reusable baggies as Rezip, Planet Wise, POAO, and Bee’s Wrap. These can be reused and washed multiple times to keep using them for multiple lunches.

Single-Use Utensils -> Reusable on the Go Utensils

Check out my Sustainable Tip #3 to have a reusable utensil kit at all times to get ideas of where and what kind of utensil kits you can buy!

Plastic Wrapped Sauces -> Mini Reusable Containers

For some salads, dressing is a necessity but plastic wrap isn’t! Sometimes salads cannot keep their crunchiness when it has been soaked for hours in dressing. Buy your favorite dressing as plastic-free as possible and get these small containers to keep your dressing safe and mess-free!

You can either get little plastic containers that seal tight to keep your favorite dressings in. Or you can buy these cute little Dressing-2-Go containers to have a mini bottle of dressing ready to go!

Some containers are made for salads and have salad dressing containers designed within the container.

Disposable Napkins -> Reusable Napkins

Save trees by using a reusable napkin! Some reusable utensil kits come with a napkin so you can always have one on hand with your utensils as well. Package free shop sells unpaper towels as convenient cloth napkins on the go or to use around the house. If you do not want to use up new resources, use an old shirt, cut it into squares, and reuse your shirt with your meal instead of going to the landfill!

Any other ideas on how you create your zero waste lunch? Let me know in the comments!

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