GreenSage E-zine 08/2008

Solving Billions of Pounds of Lunch-time Trash

Last month we introduced the Kids Konserve Lunch Kit. Why? First, we LOVE this product. Some of us remember the days of taking our lunches to school in lunchboxes with thermoses and waxed paper keeping our lunches fresh and protected. The only waste was the biodegradable waxed paper.

Through the years though, like most other products, disposable became the norm. As most of us now fully understand, 'disposable' is not sustainable. Take a look at some of these facts and figures that the folks at Kids Konserve discovered about our kids' lunches. They're staggering. We think you'll agree it doesn’t take much imagination to see how, as parents of young children, we're contributing to garbage landfills, pollutants and sending the wrong message to our children.

•Children's lunches create 3.5 billion pounds of trash each year.
•18,760 pounds of trash is generated annually from one average sized elementary school.
•The average child generates 67 pounds of lunchtime trash per year.
•80% of the 25 billion single serving plastic water bottles Americans use each year end up in landfills.
•It takes one entire tree, growing at least 15 years to produce just 700 brown paper bags.

The idea for Kids Konserve is the natural outgrowth of what these two women at Kids Konserve saw as a big need that required immediate attention. With the premise that any business they undertook had to help the environment in some way, they were compelled to avoid contributing to garbage landfills and pollutants — in effect behaving consciously and sustainably. How could they set an example of conservation for their children and empower them to be the examples of change for the future?

Focusing on how school lunches create so much waste, much of which is not recycled, opened their eyes and became the incentive that propelled them to create Kids Konserve.

Calculating the amount of trash being produced each day at their own schools during the lunch hour, multiplied by the number of schools in their districts shocked them enough to begin more research into reusable products for waste free lunch kits that will dramatically cut down on Earth's ever growing garbage pile, while using materials that are as food safe and eco-friendly as possible.

They designed this lunch kit carefully and purposefully so that everything in the kit can be re-used daily — lunch after lunch. The kits are convenient, stylish, easy to wash and safe.

The reusable waste-free lunch kit is comprised of two stainless steel round food containers, a stainless steel beverage bottle, a Food Kozy for wrapping sandwiches, snacks, fruit or special treats, and a cloth napkin — all delivered in a recycled cotton sack.

The Food Kozy was developed to be a reusable alternative to plastic baggies. Its made from the safest, non-leaching PE (polyethylene) plastic available on the market. Its FDA approved, non-toxic. There is no Bisphenol-A (BPA) and labeled #1 plastic. It is easily washed with warm soapy water. You can use a minimum amount of plastic baggies and plastic wrap, saving some bucks, by incorporating this hand washable food kozy for all your food wrapping needs.

Kids Konserve lunch kit uses stainless steel food containers and bottles, which are the safer alternative to plastic or aluminum bottles and food containers. Their stainless steel is premium food grade, non-leaching and the safest, bacteria free material to put any type of food or drink in. Stainless is very easy to recycle and put to good use again, but above all its durable and won't need replacement almost ever, saving you money while keeping the throw-aways out of the environment!

Rounding out this eco-friendly kit are cotton cloth napkins, which were around long before tree consuming paper napkins, and a recycled cotton sack containing the entire kit that fits nicely into childrens' backpacks — or you can use the kit in your own lunch box. Currently in development are eco-friendly, water proof lunch sacks.

Launch of the Kids Konserve reusable, waste-free lunch kit is the first step to educate and outreach to our youngest citizens in school as well as to the greater public. We can all choose to reuse with products made from eco-friendly materials and make a difference.

Want more info or want to purchase some for your kids? www.kidskonserve.com. This kit is a great way to start a program in your kids school for a waste-free lunch program.