For those of you who pack lunch for your kids or yourselves, we’ve got great news: you can make a little change that will make a big difference.

For those of you who pack lunch for your kids or yourselves, we’ve got great news: you can make a little change that will make a big difference. Packed lunches are a great way to make sure your child isn’t spending $14 a day on ice cream sundae lunches, but they are also often a blizzard of waste. You’ve got the little Ziploc bags, the aluminum foil, the paper napkins, the plastic utensils, the dreaded single-use plastic water bottle… you get the picture.  

Here’s the thing: they don’t need to be. With a small upfront investment, you can save money over the long term, do right by our planet, and help create earth-friendly habits in your young children. It’s as simple as purchasing the following items and then reusing them every time you pack a lunch or a snack:

1 small metal water bottle
2 small plastic lunch containers (glass is better, but too heavy)
3 reusable snack/sandwich bags (to replace the Ziplocs)
2 small cloth napkins
1 set of camping-style metal utensils

I bought all our supplies at The Container Store, but many places closer to Rye carry some or all, including Bed Bath & Beyond, Kohl’s, and Whole Foods. I wash the bags and containers by hand at night, so that they’re ready for the next day, but everything on this list is dishwasher-safe or machine washable.  

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again… There are concrete ways to improve our environment that are more difficult to adopt – take fewer plane trips, drastically reduce car use, move into smaller homes. We should all seize one as easy as the environmentally friendly lunchbox. Single-use plastic bags and bottles are blights on our planet; let’s teach our children that now and help leave them a better planet while we’re at it.

— The Rye Garden Club Conservation Committee