Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Zero Waste Wednesday: Lunch

Bento box lunch! Salads are more exciting
after you've been to the farmers' market.

Whew! I almost forgot to post a Zero Waste Wednesday this month, and I'm POSITIVE everyone single one of you (hi, Mom and Ann!) have been waiting with bated breath to see what nugget of wisdom I'd be passing along this time, right?

[Crickets.]

Ah, well.

So. Zero waste lunches. I am a big fan. My goal in life is to ban plastic sandwich bags from the house, but Eric keeps buying them (STOP THAT, ERIC!), even though, as far as I know, he rarely uses them.

Mysteries.

Abby and I use LunchBots bento boxes (but there are several stainless steel options out there -- this is not a product endorsement but rather an idea endorsement). Her lunchbox actually used to be my lunchbox until LunchBots made me an offer I couldn't refuse and I ended up with three smaller bentos, like so:

Abby's!

Mine!

Although you can get colored lids, I just went with stainless steel because, quite frankly, I like to toss these suckers in the dishwasher and not worry about whether or not the cute paint job is going to peel off. (These pictures make it look like the lid is attached; it is not.) Abby's box holds a sandwich, crackers and some sort of fruit or vegetable; I usually use the single compartment for a salad or a sandwich, and the double for fruit or vegetables. I rarely use the three-compartment bento. It's kind of my Plan B when the other two are dirty and I'm too lazy to wash them.

But I also am a big fan of glass jars and lids, and use them to hold yogurt, dressing, crackers, desserts, and whatever else I can shove inside:

Except I use plastic lids.

Glass jars and lids work great for zero waste lunches. You can't give them to a kid (I'm pretty sure Johanna kicks her lunchbox around for entertainment), but for an adult? Easy alternative. Plus everyone has glass jars knocking around.

I'm not a particular fan of plastic containers, but we have many from our pre-enlightenment phase (?) and that is what Eric and Johanna use for their lunches. Not as pretty as mine or Abby's, but it does the job. Eventually I'd like to get everyone stainless steel lunch boxes. That will probably take a while, just because of the initial expense. (These things aren't cheap.) No one seems to be in a hurry.

Um, in conclusion, here's what my lunch commonly looks like using my containers and jars et al:

This day I went crazy and put homemade ranch in a jar.

Add a cotton napkin and a real fork, and I'm good to go. The end.

Pros:
Super cute
Stainless steel is an environmental boss
Stainless steel is reusable, dishwasher safe, and practically indestructible*
I mentioned they're super cute, right?

Cons:
None for me. Johanna and Eric have to deal with plastic and its aftermath, but whatever. What's a million years to biodegrade, really?
Oh, wait: Expensive to start with

* It survived a bonk on our kitchen's tile floor, which is how we test the durability of all our kitchen products. Usually accidentally.

2 comments:

Fran said...

I am learning to love Jars also, so lovely to use and look at all shapes and sizes!

I have an Eric! I decided to be plastic bag fee on earth day but my Eric, AKA GF still needs fresh plastic bags whenever fruit and vegie shopping even though we have a pile to re use!!! aaarghhh.

Trisha Walker said...

Jars are definitely a great zero waste resource. I have a lot of canning jars in various shapes and sizes, but I hang on to product jars, too, when there's a particular shape I like or if it fits one of my lids.

Thanks for stopping by! I took a quick peek at your blog and am looking forward to exploring it more. Always fun to connect with likeminded people.