http://www.care2.com/greenliving/teach-your-children-well-make-a-reusable-sandwich-wrap.html
Teach Your Children Well: Make a Reusable Sandwich Wrap
Here is a back to school math problem: How many sandwich bags does a typical American public school class of 20 students throw out during their school years (Kindergarten–12th grade)? Let’s say the homemade lunch/snack consists of a sandwich, a few cookies, some pretzels or chips and a cut-up piece of fruit. That’s 4 bags a day times 5 days per week (20 bags) for a school year of 40 weeks (800 bags per child a year). Now multiply that by the amount of years the child is in school (13 years), and you’ll get 10,400 bags used per school child. Go on and multiply that by a class of 20 students and each class would throw out 208,000 bags during their schooling. Let’s stop here before we storm the lunchrooms.
Even if you’ve glazed over the math problem, here are the facts: It has been estimated that the average American school kid also generates 67 pounds of discarded school lunch packaging waste per year. That is more than 18,000 pounds yearly for the average-sized elementary school. While some plastic can be recycled or reused, most sandwich and snack baggies cannot. Not only do these single-use bags add to landfill waste, they create havoc on the eco-systems and hence, the health of wildlife.
Want to bag the single-use bag and show kids how they can help the environment? A DIY sandwich bag alternative is an everyday green and fun lesson to teach kids. Best of all, it reaches them right in their lunchbox (or bag). Let kids discover for themselves how small changes can make huge impacts.
Craft author, Betz White shares her reusable sandwich wrap template with step-by-step instructions from her book, Sewing Green here. The directions and template are fabulous, but she suggests using a material called, PUL. This is a durable, water-repellant polyurethane laminated fabric. It is the type of fabric often used to make diaper covers. I chose to make my sandwich wraps out of cotton fabric scraps, as I would not want the non-renewable, petroleum-based PUL fabric cozying up to my kid’s food (or bottom). An alternative may be to line the inside of the PUL fabric with cotton. Another suggestion would be to upcycle a stray wipeable or washable placemat. Any other thoughts on what materials to use that would be safe and green?
For more green lunch ideas check out this Care2 article.
Photo: craftstylish.com
Ronnie Citron-Fink lives in New York with her husband, two children (when they come home to the nest), two dogs and a cat. Ronnie is a teacher and a writer. She has been a contributing writer for Family Fun magazine. She currently writes articles about education and home design. Her writings are in four books including Family Fun Home and Some Delights of the Hudson Valley.
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18 comments
add your comment »What about using a tightly woven unbleached cotton for a liner? Make a few and wash after use. What about nylon fabric for the liner.
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You know you need to be real careful about toxins. In the old days they wrapped up food in cotton. I use that even in my freezer so the food is not touching plastic. I still use a zip lock bag to protect from freezing and air but the food does not touch it when wrapped in a clean rag. Just my simple way. Bags and containers and be reused many, many times.
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waxpaper anyone? We reused it many time over when I was a kid.
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"arts and crafts for lunchtime?" My - isn't somebody just a little too snarky! Those lovely plastic containers give off potentially toxic chemicals and are not necessarily recycleable, which makes them less than desireable. I would tend to suspect that people using the "EASY" solution is often what got us in this mess to begin with, so maybe it's time to use our brains and think a little? If this idea dosn't suit you, can you offer something as an alternative that doesn't impact so negatively as those plastic containers?
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thank you jen m. for mentioning abeego. after checking that out and doing my own research, i found a way to infuse material with beeswax myself. then it'll be a simple matter of finding a pattern i want to use for the 'wrap'. search "Treating Cloth Material with Beeswax" for those instructions if interested.
as far as "wasting time doing arts and crafts for lunch time"; i found that comment to be incredibly sarcastic and unnecessary. if a person is not open to "green" ways of living, then that person should not be wasting their time on a "greenliving" site.
not everyone wants to use plastic these days.
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I've been using Tupperware sandwich containers for my older daughter's and husband's lunches for years now! They're easy to pack into a lunch box, and they can be run through the dishwasher in the evenings. Rubbermaid even came out with a drink container that's the size of a juice box, so fewer of those end up in the landfill too. GladWare works just as well, but I've found that their sandwich containers are slightly too large for my daughter's lunch bag. However, they work just fine for my husband's lunch cooler!
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The sandwich must be awfully dry to not ooze into that fabric envelope.
Waxed paper inside a resuable lidded plastic container (lots of sandwich sized ones on the market) are the answer for me. I like to put in tomaotes, mayo, chopped fillings. Can't see that "crafty one" being practical after a smushed up salmon sandwich. Lunches have to survive the backback!
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Any materials in contact with food should be "food grade", as one poster pointed out. also, though i did it for years, the thought now is that rewashing and using plastic bags is not so healthy due to these one-use intended items breaking down sooner, possibly into the food. the bento idea sounds promising.
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I wrap my son's lunches in wax paper too, then put the food in a reusable plastic container (because apparently even 'food-grade' plastic leaches BPA). We've also totally ditched our plastic juice bottles, and now only use glass ones. (Every few months I buy a couple of the few remaining juice/iced tea brands still distributed in glass bottles - here in Edmonton, Canada, that means Snapple and Sun-Rype, though even they are going plastic now - and just re-use them for school lunches.) I'm on year 2 of a single roll of wax paper and we still have half left, meaning very, very little waste is generated by our school lunches.
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I also reuse my plastic bags, as Barbara B. suggested. Easy - just put warm water in, a little soap, squish around, rinse, let dry by the sink. And those plastic containers for sandwiches are still plastic, but much better to use one than throw out all those bags that are going to fly around. How about a light wooden box, too. Or check out some of the many Japanese bento sites like this one that I was just looking at: http://www.bentolunchbox.com/ Here's an article from Super Eco: http://www.supereco.com/news/2009/03/31/bento-boxes-blast-brown-bag-boredom/
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