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10/01/07
Sandra Dee suggested this challenge and received
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Green Ham and Cheese Featured on Aug 25, 2008
Challenge
Do you pack your lunch? We challenge you to make every day a waste-free lunch day. We'll show you how.
Individual Result
By packing waste-free lunches for one month, you will reduce your carbon dioxide emissions by 44.6 lbs.
Rally Impact
3317 people have reduced CO2 emissions by 72.61 tons by completing this challenge so far. That's equal to turning off the electricity of 102 homes for about 1 month!
Alternative content
Challenge Details
Think about the typical bag lunch. In your mind, reach into the brown paper bag and start pulling out the contents. There’s a sandwich, most likely in some sort of plastic sandwich bag. Maybe there’s a snack bag of chips or a snack bag of cookies. There might be a single-serving container of yogurt or an individually wrapped granola bar. Hopefully there’s a piece of fruit… perhaps a banana or apple. And maybe there’s a paper napkin and a plastic spoon, fork, or even — for advanced brown-baggers — a spork.
Now, think about time passing. Yak yak, chew chew. Before you know it, lunch is over. It’s time to throw away your lunch garbage. What from that typical bag lunch gets thrown into the garbage? A lot, it turns out: containers, wrappers, napkins, etc. For kids in school, the average brown-bag lunch from home generates 65 pounds of garbage per child per school year. And that’s heavier than most average children.
This Featured Challenge is based on suggestions made by Sandra Dee and canyongreengal. Together, these two suggestions have received 33 positive votes in our Challenge Workshop. We would also like to thank vancouver.girl05 and Carbonara for their environmentally-tasty suggestions.
The Carbon Connection
Much of the disposable garbage in a lunch bag (including the bag itself) is paper and plastic. Like all manufactured products, the manufacturing of paper and plastic wrappers and containers used in the typical bag lunch is a source of greenhouse emissions. Most often, fossil fuels are burned to create the energy needed to initially manufacture the paper and plastic, to create packaging from the paper and plastic, and then to actually package food in the paper and plastic. There’s also the fossil fuel needed to transport the raw materials or manufactured from one place to another. And burning fossil fuels leads to the release of carbon dioxide into Earth’s atmosphere. If we can reduce the amount of paper and plastic we use by reducing the disposable garbage in our lunches, we can reduce the carbon dioxide emissions.
Getting It Done
This Challenge is for all of you who pack a lunch for work or school each day, either for yourself or for someone in your family. It’s time to cut the carbon waste out of your midday meal. If you haven’t given much thought to making waste-free lunches for yourself or with your family, here are a few suggestions about where to start:
- The first thing you need is a good, reusable lunch bag. You’re looking for a bag that is large enough to hold your typical daily lunch, plus it needs to be durable enough to last at least a couple of years. Your new bag doesn’t need to be hard-sided; you’ll be packing the squishable food in sturdy containers that go inside the bag.
- Next you need sturdy, washable containers to replace the plastic bags or aluminum foil you’ve been using for sandwiches and other foods. These containers will also be useful for when you buy foods in bulk and dish out single-servings instead of taking pre-packaged snacks. Remember that it’s better to reuse containers you already have than to buy new ones; that way you aren’t responsible for the energy and carbon dioxide associated with the manufacture of the new container. So, before you buy any new containers, look around your kitchen to see if you already have any containers you can use. You may already have traditional containers. You might also start saving other containers, such as ones used for baby food or deli meats or margarine or cream cheese tubs.
- If you find that you do need to buy new containers, you have choices. If you don’t want to buy traditional Rubbermaid or Tupperware containers, you can always opt for simpler, cheaper alternatives like GladWare containers or Rubbermaid TakeAlongs. When buying plastic containers, look for products that say on the label that they are BPA-free. (Bisphenol A or BPA is a plastics additive that has been in use since the 1930s. Recently, BPAs have been in the news as a possible serious health risk. If the scientists and government safety organizations can’t agree on it, it seems smart to just avoid it.)
- Once you have the washable containers, you need to get the food to put in them. Buy large bags of chips and then pack smaller portions in your washable containers. Buy large tubs of yogurt and spoon a single serving into one of your washable containers instead of taking individual, pre-packed yogurts. Loose granola in a container replaces a pre-packaged granola bar.
- After the food comes the drink. Don’t pack juice boxes. Those antiseptic drink box containers (containing either juice or milk) are almost impossible to recycle. Many communities don’t even try. And as a Rallyer, you already know that the single-use plastic bottles of water are a bad idea. So it’s time to find a refillable drink bottle that will fit in your lunch bag. Check your cupboards. Again, it’s always better to use something you already own rather than buy something new. If you do need to buy a new refillable drink bottle, either look for refillable plastic bottles certified to be BPA-free (the CamelBak Better Bottle or newer products from Nalgene) or look for a stainless steel or aluminum bottle. Rinse it with water each night and then wash it on the weekend.
- Don’t forget utensils! You want to replace the disposable plastic forks and spoons with reusable, washable utensils like the ones you use at home. Take ones from home if you can spare them. If not, buy enough cheap stainless steel utensils (yard sale!) to get you and your family through a few days worth of lunches.
- Finally, pack a cloth napkin with your lunch instead of a paper napkin. Bring it home and wash it with your laundry. Not only will you cut down on your lunch waste, but think of the festive elegance you’ll be adding to your lunch table.
- Small businesses often have kitchens with dish washers. If you and your colleagues all bring in extra mugs, plates, and metal utensils from home for the office lunchroom, none of you will have to bring any from home each day! And remember, if you have plates at the office, you don’t have to take paper plates and plastic utensils from the restaurant when you bring in that pizza and salad for lunch.
- Many colleges, school systems, and individual schools are having success with waste-free lunch programs. Visit Waste Free Lunches to get ideas about how you can launch a program in your school or community.
What are you doing with your child’s lunch this year? How have you managed to tackle the scourge of wasteful packaging in your own lunch? Share your stories and suggestions with your fellow Rallyers in the Challenge forum section below.
Rules of the Challenge
This Challenge asks you to make yourself or your kids waste-free lunches for the next month. (If you normally pack your lunch a few days a week and then eat fast food the other days, then you need to make waste-free lunches a daily habit for the duration of the Challenge.) By eliminating an average of 6 ounces of packaging garbage from each lunch for 20 school days or work days, you will reduce your CO2 emissions by 44.6 lbs for the month. This Challenge is repeatable after 30 days.
Learn More
Green Living: Tips for Packing a Nutritious, Waste-Free Lunch
New York Times: Comparison Shopping, Which Costs the Environment Less?
Waste-Free Lunches
See the Math
Now it’s time to see just how much carbon dioxide you can save by switching to waste-free lunches. Here are the known or estimated numbers being used for this Challenge:
- According to a New York State Department of Environmental Conservation publication, a typical, disposable lunch creates between 4 and 8 ounces of garbage each day. We are going to split the difference and call it 6 ounces of garbage per lunch per day. source
- Let’s look at that 6 ounces of garbage. It includes plastic in the form of bags and wrappers, trays, yogurt containers, utensils, and straws. It also includes paper products such as the paper bag the lunch was packed in, napkins, other bags, straw wrappers, and so on. Of course, let’s hope that part of that garbage might be more natural, such as a banana or orange peel or an apple core. (Juice boxes are made out of plastic, paper, and aluminum foil. We are ignoring foil.) For the purposes of our calculations, we are going to split that 6 ounces equally between these 3 categories. This gives us 2 ounces of plastic, 2 ounces of paper, and 2 ounces of organic waste.
- There are around 20 work days or school days in 1 month. At one lunch per day, that gives us 20 lunches per month.
- First, let’s look at CO2 emissions associated with the paper garbage. We are going to use a conversion factor of 6.1 lbs CO2 released per 1 lb (16 oz) of paper. This is based on a 33% post-consumer fiber paper, so it should be a reasonable number to use for the different paper products in our 2 ounces of paper garbage. source
- Next, let’s look at CO2 emissions associated with the plastic garbage. We don’t have a generic conversion for plastic, so we are basing this number on an estimated 0.11 lbs CO2 released per medium-sized plastic grocery bag. A plastic grocery bag weighs about 0.15 ounces. source
- Adding the numbers for the paper and the plastic gives us 44.6 lbs of CO2 saved per month by packing waste-free lunches. We are not including energy used or CO2 created as the result of washing reusable containers. We are assuming that these will simply become part of your normal dish and laundry washing.
Not that you need more incentive, but waste-free lunches can also save you money. A popular chocolate sandwich cookie costs twice as much per ounce when bought in snack packs as opposed to larger bags. All of that over-packaging adds to the cost. According to the folks at Waste-Free Lunches, a waste-free lunch costs almost 40% less to make than a lunch filled with pre-packaged foods. Over the course of a typical 180-day school year or 240-day work year, that’s a potential savings of about $250 per child or $330 per working adult!
Discussion 102 comments so far
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My friend and I started a company a few months ago selling reusable snack/sandwich bags called ReUsies (www.ReUsies.com) – check them out they are a little easier to use than tupperware (smaller, pack down when empty, easier to clean)...might be a good alternative for people doing this challenge!
This is a cool idea. i have already started and i feel great about it!
i rarely ever pack a lunch but maybe for my sis or something or when i rarely do i defintly will! but schools already out so nxt year.
Lovin this idea, great for the environment, can’t wait to start tomorrow :D
4 days a week I have my lunch with me and It is in glass container and I’m re-using the same fork that I wash! We now buy water by the gallon instead of small bottles… and we stopped buying canes…
i’ve been using a luchbag 4 alomost 3yrs. so that i don’t waste any plastic/paper bags
Tupperware is so much better to use than plastic bags or paper bags. Tupperware or lunchboxes :)
I love this Idea!!! I sooo can’t wait to start!!!
HaHa I get sooo badly made fun of for packing my lunch every day like that. BUT WHO CARES! I’M SAVING THE PLANET! I have this canvas bag that I carry everything in and it even has a holder inside for my reuseable water bottle so it doesn’t spill. I like this challenge.
Can’t wait to start. This does make sence. I need to start using resuable lunch bag, napkin, utensils and refillable drink bottle.
When i do pack my lunch, i never use plastic bags, always tupperwaree.
This challenge was easy. I was surprised how much of this challenge I already did without even thinking. My Mom has always been big on reuse instead of recycle. The only thing I think we sometimes do is have milk or juice boxes but we do recycle these. I already am doing all the other things though!
yep i changed my paper bags to lunch box. and i should start using tupperware instead baggies. thanks!
i pack my lunch to school most of the time and i use a reusable lunch bag but i put my sandwiches in the plastic ziplock bags. I’m going to start using containers now! ^^ But i think i would have to cut my sandwich to make it fit :D
I packed a brown paper bag lunch for majority of the school year. I thought I was being eco friendly by using the paper bag rater than a plastic one, but who new the paper bags could still hurt. This opened my eyes, and I’ll be using a reusable lunch bag from now on.
This is gonna be wicked!
Will all of those containers fit in the lunch bag?
i’m loving the benefits of packing lunch! (=
my mom does this she puts in a Glad container and brings it to work then brings it home and we use over and over and over and over!!!
I don’t have a bagged lunch…what to do?
it is way easier to bring my own lunch box with containers.Plus i dont have to deal with maybe a pb&j sticking to the plastic bag.
i always us a lunch box but i never thought of the little plastic bags…im gonna try containers now..
i can’t wait to try this! :] now that i think of it, i waste so much :/ but im totally ready to change that!
i am soo trying this ! ive never thought of all the waste i create for the world EVERYDAY and now i am committing myself to saving the planet!
I got oilcloth in Mexico and made an awesome lunch bag (I also made some for my friends and family – they’re kitschy and stylish). Here’s a link on how: http://www.marthastewart.com/article/oilcloth-crafts-lunch-bags
I need to go get a lunchbox, but I will do this as soon as I can. :)
I bring reusable containers to school, I remember I bought them in October and I still use them!
i love this! i love how not only do you save the planet but also some money!
i dont even bring a drink to school you can just get water from the water fountain.
Oh yeah. Reducing pollution one pound at a time…
wow…that was easy…now i know i am helping :)
Accepted :D Haa This’ll Be Easyy && Green :) Whoop Whoop
I never really thought about the amount of plastic bags I use in my lunches, but after adding up all the times I use those Ziplocks, I think it’s time I switched to Gladware and a reusable lunchbox!
Oh sweet. This’ll be easy! Haha, I use a little cute japanese bento box for my lunches, along with a cloth sack. Wayy cuter&less waste!(:
I have this awesome lunch box made out of old juice boxes i love it! I always bring my own lunch, my school lunch is gross!
I do everything but the napkin and sometimes the utensils. But I’am ready to make the change!! :)
I already do this! This makes me feel great knowing I’ve been helping the planet (:
another way to bring drinks to school is to just reuse a regular poland spring bottle or another one of those regular bottles, it works just as well!
This is a good idea:]
I have the coolest dinosaur lunchbox that I already use every day, but now I’m going to make sure the things inside are waste free!
i haven’t bought ONE school lunch this year… i use a cute polka-dot reusable bag everyday!
I normally use a paper bag and I havent realized ive been throwing away a tree! I feel so guilty! Im gonna do whatever I can to keep my lunch waste-free! I will not cheat on this! ;D
I’m starting this challenge right now, packing my lunch with reusable containers and asking my mom to buy bulk food items instead of individually packaged stuff! Thanks :) I’m going to get my whole lunch table into this
This is great when i go back to school monday i am deffinitly going to start doing this<3
I have always taken my lunch to school because the school lunches are not usually edible, but I never thought about how many paper bags I was using up! This challenge was so easy to do, and I’m glad I did it.
This is AWESOME…so glad so many ppl are doing this!!!!!!!
i totally didnt even realise this…i thot i was saving by brown bagging, i got a lunch pack but i didnt realise that the ziploc bags were bad for earth too. i feel bad putting dirty stuff in the recycle, but the reusables will be so guilt-free. YAY!
this is a great idea!
I started this challenge and bought this cute hello kitty lunch box set and forks and spoons and everything else to go with. Who said you can’t help the environment and look cute doing it.
I take my lunch to school with me in a brown bag, but reuse it for the rest of the week, and use plastic bags for chips/treats, which I also reuse. This is such a great challenge! I’m sure that this will help the envirnment a great deal!
im gonna try this gonna ask to get a reusable lunchbox.
YAYYYYY! I go to private school so we wash our trays and silverware. We(the environmental club at school led by vice principal) set up a system where before we put our trays on the belt, we put a recycling bin near it, where we would throw the napkins in and they get placed in a separate bin to reduce waste!
wow. yay. i never use paper bags. nd i reuse the ziplockks 24/7.
My mom always makes me reuse everything. My friends always look at me like I’m weird but so what. At least I’m helping the enviroment.
This is incredible. really puts a nice hopeful outlook for the future.
Not only does this save the environment, it saves money as well! I’ve been making up a big pot of soup over the weekend, and filling a reused pickle jar to take for lunch in my bought-at-Goodwill lunchbag. I pour it into a bowl I keep at school, heat it up, and enjoy a waste-free healthy lunch. Usually add some homemade bread in a much re-used plastic baggie, and dab my lips with a line-dried cloth napkin from home. Even have darling daughter and handsome husband taking their lunches in re-usable containers. Obnoxious teenage son has to eat school lunch, but we make him take out the compost which he ends up getting all over himself. Hehehe
Every Wednesday our school goes skiing at Statton Mountain. On those days, we always pack bag lunches! On other days, we make our own breakfast and lunches, and snacks using local food or products raised at our farm.
this is goning to be so good for the envorment
i stay at home, so i rarely pack a lunch. my husband does. he does use a reuseable cooler; but INSISTS on prepackaged fruit cups, yogurts even the little bottles of water. he claims it’s ‘too much hassle’ to go green in this regard. won’t even use our flatware; plastic again. what am i to do with him?!?
I always use containers that I can reuse.
My daughter uses a “laptop lunchbox”, made in Calif. by Obento. A little pricey at $40, but well made—should last through elementary school at least.
It is interesting to see something we grew up with and always used with our ouw children, is now being toted as a new consept. Supersizing and individually wrapped portions will be the death of our country. Instead of chips, why not celary or carrot sticks. Don’t buy the baby carrots that already have their skin pealed off. It only takes a few minutes to peal a few days worth and cut them up. Save the container you buy other products in like crab meat or spreadable butter, and use them over and over. Make your own cookies on the weekend, and peanut butter and crackers. Score an orange skin for your child to peal at school or make jello at home and forget the individual fruit cups and packaged jello and pudding. I still put my sandwich in a tupperware container I bought when our children were in school,15+ years ago.
Great idea! I pretty much do this already with the exception of the napkin. It’s also a lot healthier than eating out.
Quite simple and very helpful as you can use the sturdy things for a number of other things when not in use in your lunch bag. I bring them on long trips for the younger children at the daycare and I use them in class to snack while I study.
Wow i do this everyday for my hubby. I never knew it actually helped!!!
I will pwn noobs at this.
Im up for the challenge to turn this world around and make it better for everybody. Oh by the way i rule!!!!
This is an awesome idea. Check out this cute bra to help you carry around your reusable chopsticks! http://www.swyyne.com/2008/10/08/speaking-of-bras-triumphs-my-chopsticks-bra/
I use topperwere to carry my lunch, if i use plastic bags i keep and use agian, like 4 or 5 times more.
I started doing this last spring. I had always “Brown Bagged it” as a matter of frugality, but always reused the bags…then I discovered these tins at an Indian Importer store in Brattleboro VT, called Adivasi. They are stackable stainless steel. I no longer buy plastic or wax bags for my sandwich, or salad, or pie, or chips, apple slices, granola bar (this is where I create one wrapper worth of waste)..so far I have not only used this at school but also when my wife and two kids go anywhere we pack two of these tin sets full of anything we might eat! They are wonderful and many folks have commented on them at school….they look like camping kits (although I have never actually seen anything quite like them.) I guess they are the typical lunch box in India.
I just want to clarify my daughter’s “plastic spoons & forks” are the highly durable, reusable kids kind…the kind you throw away, those are not okay and we are not pretending that they are ;-P
I recently cut back my hours at work so that I can drop-off/pick-up my daughter who justed started pre-k :) I have to eat lunch at my desk. It’s great! My daughter takes her lunch to school in a highly durable and easy to clean lunchbag we got from Land’s End, she has containers for her sandwiches, a couple different plastic cups for her drinks (no baggies or paper napkins allowed in our house!) and uses her plastic spoons and forks. The area we are slacking in is the pre-packaged granola bars, raisins, fruit snacks, applesauce, and yogurt. My lunches and my boyfriends lunches sort of revolve around whatever we have around the house for her lunches, so fixing up her lunches should get us straight with ours, too! I am glad to accept the challenge to make our lunches even more eco-friendly. This is just what we needed…
I have been doing it for past 12 years
this is great! (oh i 4got! my momo packs my lunch ‘cuz i wake up late!) oh well, i’ll try. she isn’t quite into this whole carbon rally thing just yet.
I do this everyday
I do this every day, but I’m trying to avoid the plastic wrap and the throwing-away of plastic bags.
I actually Cook my own natual food (im hispanic so will be hispanic food LOL) at the house then pack it in a portion size containers (to watch my weight too), to take for lunch and dinner since i work 2 shifts, then i come back home and clean my plastic containers and re-use them again.
I have this plastic containers for over 6 months and they are still looking like new and i will use them until they breack or so.
I play in a band call INBRYO from Dallas, TX im the drummer, we have played with Otep before, we support their Ideals and what they stand for 100%
Erick INBRYO http://www.myspace.com/inbryo http://www.inbryo.com
You can also use wax paper bags as an alternative to plastic sandwich bags
Now that I am join a Green team I am very conscious of carbon waste. I have managed to maintain the same lunch container for the past months. I simply use it for every menu. It is also been used for sandwiches, soups and salads. This cuts back on special zip lock bags, special soups containers, and salad bowls. I just don’t feel crowded anymore with unnecessary items.
its fixed!
I do this everyday.
After reading the first few comments on this when the challenge first started I changed from wax paper for my sandwiches to gladware. The bread fits perfectly in the container and it also keeps it from getting smashed!
icek8girl – Catch you on email to help you wit this accept button issue you are seeing.
somehow I cant click on the ‘accept’ button when I want to accept. it just isn’t there for me. why?
we have recycling and compost bins at school for our lunches. foil can also be recycled from our lunches. it is a great way to reduce carbon!
Since I started eating leftovers for each lunch, packed in reusable tupperware. I also feel better and am eating healthier. I don’t use a napkin, because I have a beard. Great challenge.
I’ve been doing this for months since I started going greener & realized the eco-impact of my Lean CUisine lunch packaging…so I switched to a lunch box, and reusable containers & even go so far as to bring my Mountain Dew can home to recycle it, since my workplace only has plastic recycling :( The cloth napkin idea I saw above is a great idea, since I use paper napkins provided at work; with the cloth napkins I’ll be able to add in one more reusable item to my lunch!
i do bento box lunch as a hobby, so i already do this. it’s fun, and a lot more rewarding than a sandwhich and chips!
Check out Laptop Lunches: http://www.laptoplunches.com
We were together with some folks this weekend and two families recommended them. Here is their pitch from their website:
Laptop Lunches are American-style bento boxes designed to help families pack nutritious, environment-friendly lunches for school, work, and travel. Our sustainable lunch containers – which come with a book of healthy lunch ideas and lunchmaking recipes – are reusable, recyclable, and dishwasher safe. Our lunchboxes do not contain phthalates, bisphenol A (BPA), or lead.
One of us does this well, but the other is having trouble letting go of lunches like mom used to pack. Not only will this be a Greener way to have lunch at the office, but Healthier, too! Good-bye Snak-Pak, Hello homemade treats!!
funny i’ve been doing this for some time now and it just didnt’ occur to me exactly what i was doing. how when you start to be conscious on the impact that is being made to the environment leaks into your subconscious and you just start doing “green” things without even knowing it!
i dont eat much as it is..and usually my lunch ends up in my pocket in a paperbag anyways so this challenge will be easy for me
I’ve been accustomed to using sandwich bags for as long as I can remember! School is starting in a week and so this challenge is definitely going to be a challenge for me. But hey, it’s such a good idea to save the world though! haha :)
My son’s school wanted to promote Earth Day last year. Their intention was good, but they gave every single kid in the school a plastic bag and encouraged them to use it all week. I wanted to beat someone. This would be instead of putting food on a tray that gets washed. At work, a ton of plastic goes in the garbage and this is sorely needed.
This is an easy one for me. I already take my lunch everyday. And I bring my own containers. Paper napkins are my downfall. But I have plenty of cloth ones, so I can start using them now.
Thanks for the idea. I’ll do it.
i think this is a marvolous idea!!!
Sorry we cannot help here: we have been retired for 13 years and eat our lunches at home. However, I have to say that we did exactly the challenge for the 30 years during which I took my lunch at work, and my wife did the same for 15 years. Actually, we ate our lunch together in my office.
not only do I already do this, but have done it my entire life…. it’s a little something that I picked up from my parents, who even have personalized lunch bags that last a lifetime. Our entire family has actually been doing this for as long as I can possibly remember.
yay!
Ooh boy. Read this challenge while eating lunch at my desk and now am sheepishly eyeing my two napkins, disposable cup, paper sack, yogurt container, plastic spoon and Zip-Loc bag. All headed for the trash. But not after today! Thanks for making what at first seemed impossible, do-able!
School starts Wed. and I’ve been looking for hot and cold reusuable containers. I’ve used a lot of ziplok bags, but no more. I’ll have to put into practice today for our trip to the beach. It’s also a great way to get the serving sizes into a healthier size.
Awesome! We’ve feel fairly good at this for some time, but I never saw a quantitative assessment before. We can (and will) certainly improve!