Posted on 08/28/2011 5:27:23 PM PDT by mathprof
Many retailers and schools are advocating waste-free options for back-to-school shoppers this year, especially when it comes to lunch. School lists call for Tupperware instead of Ziplocs, neoprene lunch bags instead of brown paper ones, and aluminum water bottles, not the throwaway plastic versions.
Sales of environmentally friendly back-to-school products are up just about everywhere. At the Container Store, the increase is 30 percent over last year for some items, said Mona Williams, the company’s vice president of buying. “We have seen a huge resurgence,” she said.
The trend makes the schools happy (much less garbage). It makes the stores happy (higher back-to-school spending). It even makes the students happy (green feels good).
Who’s not happy? The parents (what to do when the Tupperware runs out?).
“Ziplocs are the biggest misstep,” said Julie Corbett, a mother in Oakland, Calif., whose two girls attend a school with an eco-friendly lunch policy. In school years past, she said, many a morning came unhinged when the girls were sent to school with disposable sandwich bags.
“That’s when the kids have meltdowns, because they don’t want to be shamed at school,” Ms. Corbett said. “It’s a big deal.”
Schools have been adopting environmentally friendly policies for ecological and budget reasons, and retailers have been rushing to fill the newfound demand with store-front promotions and aggressive marketing. Staples has rows of eco-friendly lunch containers, like an Extreme flap lunchbox case with a compartment for plastic food boxes, and a Yak Pak lunch tote that looks like a purse.
Many of the schools are pushing waste-free lunches, where everything must be either compostable or reusable, in an effort to reduce garbage and the cost of hauling it away.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
When my kids pack a lunch, its generally a sandwich in a ziploc - nobody gives them any pipe about it.
But - if anybody did, I’m pretty sure my kids are self-assured enough not to care. Still, if any ecothugs were bothering them, just to have some fun, I’d slip a dollar inside each bag. You like apples? - How about them apples.
“The trend makes the schools happy (much less garbage).”
So,,,, make the idiot kids in detention separate the garbage, and recycle.
“In school years past, she said, many a morning came unhinged when the girls were sent to school with disposable sandwich bags.
“That’s when the kids have meltdowns, because they don’t want to be shamed at school,” Ms. Corbett said. “It’s a big deal.”
Sheesh! I’d tell that mom to home school, but she’s too freakin’ stoopid!
Then it’s a good thing the Marines outlawed farting in Afghanistan, isn’t it??
What I love are the throw-away tupperware. You can look environmentally friendly, and then chuck the thing in the garbage.
Anyway, haven’t they heard that sanwdich bags are recyclable AND reusable? Although I actually use tupperware for my sandwich, because I admit I just don’t like throwing stuff away.
so the kids can't use plastic zip lock bags for sandwiches, but the teachers and administrators will go thru reams of paper sending out notices,internal memos, posters,etc....and it'll all be thrown in the garbage...
pencils and chalk is what used to be used...with erasers....and kids who brought their lunches in brown paper sacks were usually the poorer kids...like me...and our moms wanted us to fold up the paper bag and bring it home each day...and I happen to know a lot of kids did that.
they throw everything out at schools....there is no reusing large poster board, or saving half used notebooks...
there still has been nothing done about the obscene text book industry....how many trees that does that require so the textbook people can make huge profits every time the schools change the requirements, which is continuous.......
these idiots are all for kids being bused everywhere, wasting gas picking up the little darlings from a 1/2 mile away or so, yet they'll forbid plastic little bags.........insanity....
“Obama needs a “Plastic Sandwich Bag” tsar.”
No! He needs a plastic bag over his head, with a bunch of twisty ties sealing it shut!
Worked for me too. I thought kids weren't allowed to bring lunches from home anymore. Particularly since most of the kids get free breakfast and lunch now anyway.
Since they’re apparently issued C4 underwear...yes. Yes, it is.
It’s not about ‘waste free’..
It’s about the economy. Buying in a way so you don’t have to go back and buy it again in a month.
Millions and millions don’t have jobs or homes...
IT’S THE ECONOMY, STUPID.
Her pouch is a #4? That’s not very good — 1’s and 2’s are the best, by #4 you might as well be burying it in a waste disposal site. My family re-uses gatorade bottles. Note that means first we re-use, and then after a while, we recycle them — they are #1s, highly recyclable.
And we don’t have to throw out a perfectly reusable outer shell that must have taken a lot of energy to produce.
I can see it now, a new position, someone paid to observe the garbage can and scowl at children.
They are missing the point here, with single stream recycling we can pay ever more people to pick through garbage, it might be the only job growth under Obama. And, it’s all you can eat...!
The girls should just eat the bags, too. Turn them into compost that way, and leave the remains on the school lawn ... late at night, from a drive-by of course.
Since when do schools get to mandate how parents pack their kids' lunch?
No reusable bottle for our district. All beverages that come into school must be seeled. They had a problem with high schoolers bringing gin, vodka and rum in water bottles.
Yep - sort of like the peanut butter jar. Not that it is a pain in the butt to clean before recyling it - I just don’t want to waste the water. It takes two washes and two rinses or more to really get them clean. (Worth the effort though for the kid’s science experiments, bug collections, etc.)
My 93 year old mom would be a star at these schools. Could probably teach them something from her Depression era frugalness. The only one I know that has used plastic bread bags washed and hanging to dry in her million dollar plus vacation home!
How much longer before proctologists recycle latex gloves?
LMAO She has earned the right to do as she pleases,Those difficult times made real people,The very ones who built this place!
Hmmm... might be an opening here for Japanese style bento (lunch) boxes. They come in all kinds of colorful and amusing designs. Perfect for leftovers and sanwiches. Most are leakproof and have movable partitions for different portion sizes...
I need to look into this.
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