Journey to Zero Waste Lunch Challenge

Happy New Year and Happy 1st Birthday to my third baby, Living Cleaner, Easier & Safer – one year ago, I launched my LCE Facebook group and Instagram account and it’s been so much fun, so I wanted to take it to the next level!

While the idea to start a blog started many, many years ago while at my first fashion PR agency (remember Lindsay and Megan?!), I’m excited that it’s finally coming to fruition, after all this time. This year, I’m really determined to live better and to buy less, so next week’s journey to zero waste lunch challenge is the perfect way to start the year off right. Now, whether you are just starting your journey or perhaps you’re already living as much of a zero waste lifestyle as you can be, I hope this challenge will do just that – challenge us to pay better attention to our daily footprint and ways to clean up and minimize our impact.

So, let’s get started and talk about the goals for next week’s challenge. Remember it’s all up to you, so you won’t get in trouble if you forget or cheat – learn from each day and think about how you can implement these actions on the regular:

• Say goodbye to disposables and hello to consistent use of reusable lunch boxes/bags/cutlery
• Shop smarter by buying bigger/bulk sizes (or bonus points, make your own!) vs individual, pre-packaged snack size foods

Now that that’s out of the way, how are we going to do this starting next Monday?

Lunchtime Essentials

• Most of you have invested in safer reusables, so forgo the convenience of zip lock bags, brown paper bags and other throwaway items, instead use what you have
• Don’t forget about drinks – no juice boxes, milk or disposable water bottles. Use those reusable water bottles
• Do you normally pack/use plastic forks, spoons, etc? Bring flatware from home and you can even include a little note reminding your child/spouse/yourself to not throw it away
• Take a salad or yogurt and want to avoid a mess? Use a leak-free container like mason jars to avoid any potential headaches
• Pack a cloth napkin instead of a paper napkin
• Got leftovers? Take them for lunch! And if you’re going out for dinner, bring your own reusable container and eating/reheating has never been easy – don’t worry, more people will compliment you on BYO vs give you a side eye, I promise 🙂

What’s for Lunch?

• Organize yourself for the week ahead and meal plan as much as you can to minimize stress, waste and distractions
• Making lunches can be hectic and while individual/snack portions make life easier, commit to make a changing this week to reduce your footprint and expenses! If you can’t find what you want in the bulk section of your grocery store/farmers market, buy the bigger sizes and portion out what you need in smaller, reusable bags/containers – bonus points for sourcing local produce and making your own snacks (yup, this is next level, so it’s okay to set as future goals)
• This one I feel is esp hard with kids, but pack a realistic amount of food to minimize waste. I know I can struggle with this, as some days there is nothing leftover and sometimes I’m surprised by what comes back – this is definitely something I am hoping to work on more for the remainder of the school year

To support one another and also give each other ideas, let’s take lunch pix everyday and share it with the group! You can include yours too or just focus on your kids lunch/snacks or do both 🙂

Feeling overwhelmed?

Leave a comment below and together, I know we can do this!