Next up in our lunch-themed week…

Like clear plastic muffin/cake boxes, plastic clamshell-ish tubs from salad bars or pre-packed pastas/salads are frustrating – they’re *almost* strong enough and *almost* resealable enough to be reused but not quite.

As with many things of this nature, it’s best to just avoid them when possible so you don’t have to worry about disposing of the tub afterwards – but if you do pick one up, what can you do with it?

I believe most of them are plastic identification number 5 so can be recycled in some places. They can also be used as mini-greenhouses/cloches for very small seedlings.

Any other suggestions?

Following on from yesterday’s lunch box post, I thought we might have a week of lunch themed items because a) I love lunch, mmm, lunch and b) it is often a lot more wasteful than most meals because most people tend to be away from home, with limited catering facilities and so are more likely to resort to pre-packed snacks.

To save money and to avoid packing landfills with even more plastic sandwich packs, people are encouraged to take their own packed lunches with them to work – but without a bit of pre-planning, that can easily lead to a lot of packaging waste – plastic bags, cling film/saran wrap, foil — and that’s before starting on any specially bought single serving items.

There are a number of different bento box style lunchboxes on the market – a set of reusable containers which fit neatly inside a carry case – perfect for snack-size portions of different items. If you’ve already got a stash of small plastic tubs (either purpose-built or reusing resealable packaging), you can use these as inspiration to make your own bag. Perhaps even one that can fit onto your bike…

If your lunch isn’t quite so complicated, a reusable sandwich wrap/bag might be enough – Julie from Towards Sustainability has been experimenting with making a reusable lunch bag for her daughter.

What have you done to cut down packed lunch waste? Have you made your own sandwich bag/wrap or lunch box? Do you regularly reuse packaging from other food items — like bread bags?

What do you do for drinks? Have you bought a purpose-built water bottle or do you reuse an old bottle instead?

The other day, Mrs Green of My Zero Waste mentioned how happy she was to receive something in the post wrapped in newspaper rather than a bubblewrap lined envelope or plastic bag.

We buy a lot of stuff online – secondhand stuff from eBay, homemade things from Etsy/Folksy, computer bits, craft supplies, clothes for us and the bajillion small people exploding from the loins of our friends etc etc – and as a result, always have a large amount of packaging lying around our office. A lot of online shops have made improvements over the last few years – crinkled brown paper or air bags instead of polystyrene packaging nuggets, and I’ve received stuff from eBay in all sorts of reused cardboard boxes – but the pile still grows. I reuse it where I can (see below for related reuses) but I’d rather reduce the amount of stuff I receive in the first place if possible.

The most obvious answer to the question is “stop ordering so much stuff online and support your local shops instead”, which is fair enough for some things but other things are harder to come by in real life.

Has anyone ever asked an online shop to reduce the amount of packaging they use? Has anyone sent it back for them to deal with? I’d love to hear your experiences.

If you sell stuff online, what do you do to keep packaging minimum? Got any suggestions for others in the same position?

Post packaging reuses

• How can I reuse or recycle envelopes?
• How can I reuse or recycle padded envelopes?
• How can I reuse or recycle plastic post bags?
• How can I reuse or recycle bubble wrap?
• How can I reuse or recycle packaging cushions?
• How can I reuse or recycle brown paper

Ahead of Valentine’s Day on Sunday, I thought it might be worth linked to some of our old posts relevant to this time of year – making homemade recycled gifts & stuff, and recycling/reusing packaging and whatnot from love-tokens you might receive from others.

• How to reuse or recycle dried fresh flowers – such as roses?
• How to reuse or recycle chalky candy hearts?
• How to reuse or recycle the plastic wrapping from a bouquet?
• How to reuse or recycle gift bags
• How to make your own gifts bags/recycled wrapping from waste materials
• How to reuse or recycle a wedding dress?
• How to make a photo frame/mirror frame reusing recycled materials
• How to reuse or recycle greetings cards?
• How to reuse or recycle wrapping paper?
• How to reuse or recycle chocolate boxes?
• How to reuse or recycle wrappers from individual chocolates?

We’ve had an email from Katharyn:

Can you tell me what alternatives I have to plastic milk bottles from the supermarket? I tried to get a milkman to deliver but they told me I don’t get through enough milk to warrant them adding me to the route but I seem to generate lots of empty milk bottles! I can recycle them at the supermarket but I would rather not use them in the first place.

I think the milkman – with their reusable glass bottles – is probably the best route here to go down here – such a shame they won’t deliver. How about talking to your neighbours to see if you can up the order?

Some local wholefood stores also stock milk in glass bottles – talk to them about whether you can return the bottles for reusing or whether they should be recycled with other glass bottles.

If you have to keep using your supermarket, buying in bulk would reduce the amount of plastic used per pint but then you’d have a lot of milk to get through. Milk can be frozen but it can be a little separated on thawing – perfectly fine for cooking with but a little less palatable on your cereal. Any advice on freezing milk?

Any other suggestions?