Green Tips

Pack a Waste-Free Lunch

WasteFreeLunches.org
Everything you need to start or participate in a waste-free lunch program.

Pack a Waste-Free Lunch

Download a poster to display in the school cafeteria or to put on your refrigerator.

 

Healthful Snack & Lunch Ideas

  

8 Ways to go Green(er)*

❑ 1. Close the Loop: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

• Buy recycled products and products in recycled packaging. 
• Avoid products in excess packaging, reduce levels of consumption, and compost kitchen wastes. 

❑ 2. Save Energy at Home: Conduct a Home Energy Audit, Get Brighter Ideas.

Call your utility company for a free home-energy audit to locate the biggest energy wasters in your home and to save money!

• Caulk your windows, insulate your water heater (reduce carbon dioxide emissions up to 1,000 pounds per year), replace worn-out appliances with energy-efficient ones (reduce emissions by up to 3,000 pounds per year). 
• Replace standard light bulbs with energy-efficient fluorescents, especially in rooms you use most. Replacing just one bulb in your home would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 500 pounds per year! (Source: EnergyStar)

❑ 3. Prevent Pollution Inside Your Home: Get a Green Clean Instead!

“How can I prevent pollution starting at home?” helps you identify harmful products, dispose of them ecologically, and find greener alternatives.

• Avoid products with NTA, EDTA, phosphates, chlorine bleach, or sodium hypochlorite.
• Buy biodegradable and non-toxic cleaning products, or make your own. 

❑ 4. Be Water Wise: Trick with a Brick, Go with the Low-Flow, The Classic Brush Off.

• To save water, put a brick in your toilet tank, install low-flow showerheads (reduce carbon dioxide emissions by up to 300 pounds per year), and don't run the water while you brush your teeth.

❑ 5. In Your Yard: Get Zany about Xeriscaping, Poo Poo Pesticides, Protect Pollinators.

• Plant less grass and xeriscape with drought-tolerant native plants to conserve water. 
• Avoid fertilizers and let grass go dormant in summer. 
• Avoid pesticides—they kill pollinators and are harmful to people, animals, and the environment.

❑ 6. Be a Savvy Shopper: Wake Up and Smell the (Shade-Grown) Coffee! 

• Buy shade-grown coffee to save tropical forest habitats and help conserve biological diversity.
• Buy locally-grown organic foods, and purchase certified wood products.

❑ 7. Hoof It! 

• Cut down on carbon-dioxide emissions by walking or riding your bike, taking public transportation, and starting a carpool. If you drive, be sure your car gets 30 miles to the gallon (reduces carbon dioxide 2,500 pounds a year over a car that gets 10 mpg less). 
• Check into competitively-priced electric/gas hybrids if you are buying a new car.

❑ 8. Take Action: Get Involved with a Local Conservation Issue.

• Contact local conservation organizations to learn about the issue.

*(Excerpted, with permission, from Smithsonian's National Zoo's Conservation Central Family Learning Activity.)