Back to School the Green Way

This is a guest post by Beth Aldrich who is a Certified Health & Nutrition Counselor, Healthy-Lifestyle-Green Living Expert, Author and mother of three boys. Her new book, Real Moms Love To Eat (Penguin NAL, fall 2011) will take you on a love affair of healthy, whole foods! You can also check out her Real Moms Love To Eat Blog.
This post is particularly relevant to me because I have a child starting kindergarten and I will be packing her lunches!

Back to school time presents a great opportunity for children and parents alike, to take another look at ways the family can live more earth-friendly throughout the year. One easy way is to make school lunches green.

For school lunches, using reusable containers is responsible,economical, and an easy way to save our environment as well as your hard earned dollars. With dozens of great options from lead/vinyl/PVC free, to American made 100% organic cotton - there’s an eco-friendly, reusable lunch bag solution for everyone! When a "brown bag" lunch creates between 4–8 ounces of garbage every day (about 100 pounds per year!), it only makes sense to switch to simple, reusable, sustainable solutions.

One zero-waste solution for all of your lunch packing needs is the colorful and fun Kids Konserve waste-free lunch kits! With a squiggle Ice Pak & Cover made of non-toxic, biodegradable material, that fits perfectly on the bottom of the lunch kits, your child's lunch will stay cold for hours; and and the ice pack doesn't sweat!

Most earth conscious parents know that using disposable plastic water bottles bottles are a big no-no. Instead, consider using reusable stainless steel water bottles form KleanKanteen, to avoid adding the mounting plastic that occupies our landfills (taking almost 1000 years to break down in nature). These bottles are BPA-free and come in a variety of sizes and colors.

Going green can be effortless for children and still very rewarding, by using reusable containers for their school lunches.

Lots more research and information on how much money you can save packing waste free lunches at wastefreelunches.org

You may also like to read Actions Kids can Take to Go Green.