Even if you stick to the less expensive, run-of-the-mill lunch takeout options like Subway or the local Chinese joint, lunch can run you anywhere from $5 to $10 bucks, especially if you buy a bottled beverage. Not only is that a lot of cash per week, it’s a lot of packaging that ends up in the waste stream. Even if you want to recycle your plastic utensils or food wrap, type 3 plastics like these aren’t recycled in most cities. Ordering delivery is even worse: restaurants throw packaged utensils, condiments, and moist towelettes into plastic bags, regardless of whether you actually need them.

Bringing your lunch can save you upwards of $50 a week – but skip the brown paper bag! Reusable bags save cost in the long run and obviously reduce waste – but make sure you get one that’s ultra durable so you can get the most use out of it. We particularly like Laptop Lunches’ Lunch Date, which comes with not only a reusable hemp bag, but also a Bento Box with sleeve, an 18 oz. stainless steel lunch jar for hot or cold foods, a reusable icepack, and a stainless steel drink bottle. Click here to read more

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Daily Greenz #156

With the popularization of reusable bags by celebrities and mainstream clothing and accessories brands, there’s now hardly a soul unaware that using plastic bags is far from eco-friendly. But exactly how bad are they? Bangladesh banned them four years ago. Beginning June 1, they’ll be banned in China. And last year, San Francisco was the first U.S. city to prohibit their distribution in supermarkets and chain pharmacies. So what’s behind these bans? Firstly, their production requires valuable, non-renewable petroleum, and lots of it – 12 million barrels of it, to be exact. Secondly, the roughly 100 billion plastic bags we use here in the U.S. take up to 1,000 years to begin to decompose, and they don’t biodegrade. Rather, they photodegrade, meaning they break down into small, toxic bits that end up contaminating soil and waterways over and over again. 

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