Sustainability NEWS
SUSTAINABILITY NEWS
As the weather is warming up the St Agatha’s vegetable garden will be coming alive with healthy vegetables and salads for the students to use. As we are focussing on healthy lunches this term, the students will be using the vegetable garden produce to create ideas for a healthy lunch.
Litter Free Lunches
This term, the St Agatha’s students are going to focus on reducing the rubbish that is in their school lunch boxes. It has been estimated that on average a school-age child using a disposable lunch generates three pieces of litter per day, which equates to 30 kg of waste per year. This works out to be 15 tonnes of waste produced by a school of 500 students each year from lunch boxes alone!
Based around the 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle), litter free lunches are lunches that contain food items with no disposable packaging or single use items, such as pre-packaged foods, plastic bags, juice poppers, bottled water, disposable utensils, plastic straws or food wrapped in cling wrap or foil.
Although it is great to see the students making and packing their own lunches, as a parent we still need to be guiding them in making healthy choices rather than what is the most convenient.
Benefits of litter-free school lunches include:
- students eating healthier lunches, as they are being provided with less pre-packaged 'gimmicky' snack foods and more fresh food in appropriate amounts
- less waste being produced and sent to landfill
- cheaper lunches, as food items bought in bulk are less expensive than pre-packaged products
- a reduction in waste collection and disposal costs to the school, as less waste is being generated by the school community
- providing students with a practical example of how simple behaviour change can easily address a widespread environmental issue
- promotion of environmental stewardship and advocacy within the school
- a cleaner school (research has shown that less litter is dropped in areas free of litter compared to areas where litter is more noticeable)
If you require any further information on litter free lunches or healthy lunches, please click on the following links for some great ideas.
Packing a waste-free lunch (Healthy Kids Association Australia)
Liz Carver
Sustainability Leader