Green lunch

Charlie isn't lunching in true NYC fashion.  That is, he's not eating out.  He still totes his lunch to work each day.  It's cheaper, I'm convinced, although I do intend to do some number crunching soon.

We continue to try be thrifty and green, and those two usually go hand in hand.  In an effort to stop using plastic bags all together, I moved to packing lunches in wax paper and reusable containers over a year ago.  Giving up ziploc snack and sandwich bags didn't exactly give me extra cash in the bank.  I'm going to have to use those containers for a long, long time to break even, but I derive a great sense of satisfaction in knowing our house is not adding plastic bags to landfills.

In the past Charlie's lunch contained at least 4 plastic bags.  That's 20 bags per week, and over 1000 bags per year that were being added to landfills.  And that's just one lunch.  Imagine if I were packing lunches for a family of 4 each morning.

Right before moving I found reusable baggies, and I love them.  I think Charlie likes them too.  Who wouldn't smile when pulling out their sammie from this:

Sammie, carrots, and chips

They are dishwasher safe and are easily rinsed out in the sink.  I've got six "sandwich" size bags.  I'm interested in trying the "snack" and "sub" sized bags as well but these have met our needs so far.  Occasionally he'll get a container if he's getting a gooey dessert, but for the most part, it's a few lunchskins tossed into his "briefcase."