Plastic Baggies

Baggies.
Here's the problem:
Finding oil.
Digging up oil with trucks.
Oil refineries.
Transporting oil.
Bag factories.
Transporting bags.

There's lots of pollution and oil consumption
through every stage of a baggie's life.

They're used once. Maybe 2 or 3 times.

Then tossed.
Garbage trucks.
Landfill

Or maybe recycling truck, if lucky.
Then a long trip down a highway.
A recycling factory.
Then another truck, to another store. 

The life cycle of a baggie is not very pretty.

How many does your family use every day? 
 With 7 billion people, it all adds up. 

Reusables are the way to go!

Label your items

Don't want to lose your Waste Free Lunch items?
Label your items!
A great labelling company is http://www.mabelslabels.com/
They stick well to anything.

Free Store

Sometimes resuable bottles and containers get misplaced and end up in the school's lost and found.

Our school is starting a Free Store!

Items left over from our school’s lost and found
are usually brought to the Salvation Army 3 times a year. Now before we take them there, kids and adults get take anything they'd like, for free.


Free stores are found all over the place, where communities are trying to reduce the amount
of things going into landfill. 


Hornby Island, a tiny B.C. island trying to reduce its waste with a Free Store.
Inspiring!
http://www.hirra.ca/recycle/
http://www.yelp.ca/biz/hornby-island-recycling-hornby-island

Cut It Up!

It's the best thing since sliced bread: sliced fruit!

Cutting up apples and other fruit ensures there is less waste
and more going into kids' tummies.

Apple corers are great!

Often kids don't eat the whole apple unless it's cut up.

What our Custodians think

Our custodians are very impressed with the success of our Waste Free Lunches. They say our total waste each day has been cut down by at least 67%, from 15 bags a day to about 5, for the whole school.


Since our big blitz during Earth Week, lunch waste been cut down even more. Last week Muriel picked up one bag of garbage after lunch for the whole school. For over 600 people, that's fabulous.


Last year we produced about 2700 bags of garbage in total during the school year. This year it will be about 900.


Holy cow!


The parents, kids and staff are all making this work. Way to go, Ecole Dickinsfield School!.

What our students think

 Check out this beautiful video of
Ecole Dickinsfield School students talking
about our school and Waste Free Lunches.

Filmed by Alex Rushdy, a local videographer.
alexrushdy@gmail.com

Thrown Out Food

As much as we’d like our kids to eat what we pack for them, too often it ends up being tossed in the garbage. Ask your child to bring back any food they don’t eat, so you have a clear idea of how much food they need. You’ll also get an idea of food they just refuse to eat. A waste free lunch is one that doesn’t have food that has to be thrown out. It will also save you money!