Following on from yesterday’s lunch box post, I thought we might have a week of lunch themed items because a) I love lunch, mmm, lunch and b) it is often a lot more wasteful than most meals because most people tend to be away from home, with limited catering facilities and so are more likely to resort to pre-packed snacks.

To save money and to avoid packing landfills with even more plastic sandwich packs, people are encouraged to take their own packed lunches with them to work – but without a bit of pre-planning, that can easily lead to a lot of packaging waste – plastic bags, cling film/saran wrap, foil — and that’s before starting on any specially bought single serving items.

There are a number of different bento box style lunchboxes on the market – a set of reusable containers which fit neatly inside a carry case – perfect for snack-size portions of different items. If you’ve already got a stash of small plastic tubs (either purpose-built or reusing resealable packaging), you can use these as inspiration to make your own bag. Perhaps even one that can fit onto your bike…

If your lunch isn’t quite so complicated, a reusable sandwich wrap/bag might be enough – Julie from Towards Sustainability has been experimenting with making a reusable lunch bag for her daughter.

What have you done to cut down packed lunch waste? Have you made your own sandwich bag/wrap or lunch box? Do you regularly reuse packaging from other food items — like bread bags?

What do you do for drinks? Have you bought a purpose-built water bottle or do you reuse an old bottle instead?

We’ve had an email from Sarah C:

My kids always need new lunchboxes, what can I do with the old ones?

The hard plastic square ones I used to have when I was little were good kid-size storage boxes so maybe encourage them to use their previous year’s boxes as storage – for pens, letters & birthday cards, small toys – in their bedrooms. If they’re a bit scruffy, they can probably be recovered or painted, and you could make old fashioned suitcase straps & buckles if the plastic catch has broken.

Insulated cooler bags seem to be more common that those though now and from what I’ve read Googling around, they don’t seem to last as long as the hard plastic ones – not so easy to keep them clean. The material could be used to make coffee cup/beer can sleeves – or insulating pipes around the home where space is too tight for expanded foam.

Any other suggestions?