How to pack a school lunch while measuring your garbage at the same time… Does it have to be difficult, cost extra money or considered a chore?. Absolutely not!
By simply utilizing the food containers collecting dust in your cabinets will cut down tremendously on the amount of plastic normally added to your local dump. Luckily my family lives near a brand-named grocery store that has made available to its customers a giant metal dumpster that will only accept plastics the waste management company will not.
The Generic Material Recycling Symbol
Now I understand nearly all of your food containers will be made of some sort of plastic and that’s okay for now, use them! It wouldn’t make any sense to recycle perfectly good food containers in order to spend your hard earned money on new ones. Use what you have and dispose of them properly when the time comes.
The company that picks up the garbage in my city supplies free recycling containers so I can recycle my paper, metal cans and plastics. Unfortunately they only accept plastics #1 & #2 and nearly every food container is a #4, #5 or #7 so be sure to locate the recycling triangle on the bottom.
If you are “In The Market” for new food containers Amazon has some pretty good selections for metal lunch boxes
as well as biodegradable plastic containers
So if you’d like to see how I limit the amount of plastics my family throws away check out my video, Measure Your Garbage While Packing A School Lunch
I avoid plastic as much as poisbsle. Plastic is toxic to produce, hard to recycle, they aren’t intended to go into the microwave and there is some evidence that the heat of the dishwasher allows them to leach into your food, they aren’t considered food safe if the surface is scratched. For storage I use glass and metal, they are great for the fridge or freezer, are 100% food safe, and will last a long time.
The simplest way to make sure you are getting recyclable plastics is to check the packaging at the store. If it doesn’t meet your local criteria for recycling, leave it on the shelf. As for storage containers at home, I would suggest using Pyrex containers. They don’t contain any of the PBA’s or other funny chemicals that plastics do. The glass they are made of is also much more recyclable. Plastics can only go through the recycling process a couple of times before they can no longer be melted down and reformed. At that point, whatever form they are in, usually carpeting, they are headed for the landfill.
EPI Environmental Technologies Inc. (check their website, link below)andSpirit of Nature I would relaly like to purchase their Nappy Sacks so we could use them for my mom’s clinic. I’ll be ordering them soon. I’m so excited to have them, so I could put on a poster and tell/inform all of my mom’s patients that we care for the environment and we are DOING something about it. They also have degradable garbage plastic bags by the way. And FYI (the info below is copied from about.com)Recycling by the Numbers:The symbol code we’re familiar with—a single digit ranging from 1 to 7 and surrounded by a triangle of arrows—was designed by The Society of the Plastics Industry (SPI) in 1988 to allow consumers and recyclers to differentiate types of plastics while providing a uniform coding system for manufacturers.The easiest and most common plastics to recycle are made of polyethylene terephthalate (PETE) and are assigned the number 1. Examples include soda and water bottles, medicine containers, and many other common consumer product containers. Once it has been processed by a recycling facility, PETE can become fiberfill for winter coats, sleeping bags and life jackets. It can also be used to make bean bags, rope, car bumpers, tennis ball felt, combs, cassette tapes, sails for boats, furniture and, of course, other plastic bottles.Number 2 is reserved for high-density polyethylene plastics. These include heavier containers that hold laundry detergents and bleaches as well as milk, shampoo and motor oil. Plastic labeled with the number 2 is often recycled into toys, piping, plastic lumber and rope. Like plastic designated number 1, it is widely accepted at recycling centers. Plastics Less Commonly RecycledPolyvinyl chloride, commonly used in plastic pipes, shower curtains, medical tubing, vinyl dashboards, and even some baby bottle nipples, gets number 3. Like numbers 4 (wrapping films, grocery and sandwich bags, and other containers made of low-density polyethylene) and 5 (polypropylene containers used in Tupperware, among other products), few municipal recycling centers will accept it due to its very low rate of recyclability.Another Useful Plastic to RecycleNumber 6 goes on polystyrene (Styrofoam) items such as coffee cups, disposable cutlery, meat trays, packing “peanuts” and insulation. It is widely accepted because it can be reprocessed into many items, including cassette tapes and rigid foam insulation.Hardest Plastics to RecycleLast, but far from least, are items crafted from various combinations of the aforementioned plastics or from unique plastic formulations not commonly used. Usually imprinted with a number 7 or nothing at all, these plastics are the most difficult to recycle and, as such, are seldom collected or recycled. More ambitious consumers can feel free to return such items to the product manufacturers to avoid contributing to the local waste stream, and instead put the burden on the makers to recycle or dispose of the items properly.I relaly learned a lot from this site and there are more interesting things to read about caring for the environment on this site. Like to save water and save money (on your water bill), put a brick inside your toilet water tank. Cool! Another one is buy and use rechargeable batteries (save money, less solid waste on our dumpsites).Enjoy reading or browsing!