Lunchbox Challenge | Whissendine Church of England Primary School

Can we reduce single-use plastic at school?

Did you know?

Most of our rubbish ends up in holes in the ground and is left to rot
We are running out of suitable sites for landfill
Plastic carrier bags and other single-use plastic containers can kill wildlife on land and in the sea
Each year in the UK we throw away over 30 million tonnes of household waste
A typical school throws away at least 3 tonnes of waste a year

We would like to challenge the children to bring a lunch that leaves NO 'landfill waste' at all and try and use less packaging in their lunchboxes every day!

It is tricky, but we have a few ideas below:

The 3 R's of a low-waste lunch

Reduce: the best way to make sure less packaging is thrown away is not to use it in the first place! Buy in bulk and take a daily portion in a reuseable container (it works out cheaper too!)

Reuse: The next option to reduce waste is to reuse: lots of containers are reuseable.

Recycle: Try to recycle anything you can.

OK	BETTER	BEST
Packet of crisps	A portion of crisps from a larger bag in an airtight box	Fruit or vegetable sticks in an airtight box
Pouch of juice	A carton or single-use bottle of drink	Reuseable bottle of drink
Sandwich in a plastic bag or wrapped in clingfilm	Sandwich wrapped in foil	Sandwich in an airtight box
Prepacked cake or biscuits	A portion of biscuits/slice of cake from a larger packet/cake in an airtight box	Homemade cake or biscuit in an airtight box
Squeezy tube of yogurt	Plastic tub of yogurt with a paper or foil lid	A portion of yogurt from a larger tub in a leak-proof box
Prepacked fruit	Fruit or vegetable sticks in an airtight box	Fruit or vegetables with their own packaging (eg banana)