How Big is Your Trash Pile?

Sustainability expert Melissa Schweisguth doesn’t throw anything away. In fact she can fit her entire year’s worth of trash in one coffee can. Isn’t that impressive? I’m way impressed. She composts, recycles, re-uses, and even takes her own utensils and napkin with her to restaurants! Talk about living trash free. She is my hero.

I didn’t think our family does too bad on the trash front either. After composting, recycling, and hoarding, most weeks we have a half-full trash can to drag down the hill for the trash truck. I really think if it weren’t for my children, we could get down to a coffee can or two a week. But I have children and children create trash. I take some comfort in the fact that Yu-gi-oh cards can be recycled, but what about all those Littlest Pet Shop creatures and all their stuff?? I was faced with this dilemma this morning as I sorted through our basement. Things have gotten to the breaking point down there. As I confessed in a recent post, it is a dumping ground. Out of sight, out of mind. At least until you need to find an extra lunch box because someone left theirs at school. Wading through the boxes and piles and stepping over the furniture and bins was becoming much too treacherous.

This morning I headed to the basement with boxes, a big contractor clean up bag, and my resolve. I would not hold on to everything. But what about the six thousand pieces of “pottery” the kids made at clay camp? Or the large plastic fragments left from Christmas’ past – part of the Mega-ship Shark Attack? What to do with hundreds of Beanie Babies and their hand-made Beanie Baby sleeping bags? Then there were the craft kits - garden mosaic, Tile-Fun, Your-own-Pottery-Wheel, and those aptly named, Blow Pens? Not to mention the Earthworm observatory and the Ant Farm. What do I do with these things? Lucky for me our church is having a Yard Sale this fall. We go to a very open-minded, environmentally-friendly church filled with creative, resourceful people who are very big on recycling and re-purposing– maybe someone will want a partially used Ant Farm? I filled several boxes with potential treasures. I also filled several boxes for Goodwill because I just can’t bear for anyone to know I ever owned these things. It took hours and hours, but things are a little better down there. Even after re-purposing and recycling, and possibly pawning off as much as I could I still trooped up the stairs with a Contractor Trash Bag filled to the brim. I am no Melissa Schweisguth.

Reading about Melissa did inspire me. It’s made me hyper-aware of everything I bring in to my house. I thought about going to the store today to get the ingredients for Watermelon Slushies. I have a ton of watermelon leftover from the monster watermelon we sliced over the weekend. It needs to be put to use today or it’s chicken food. The recipe called for several items I don’t have so I mentally made plans to stop at the store this afternoon. But as I dug through the mounds of stuff in my basement I thought about our trash allotment. It’s mostly kid junk and food containers that can’t be recycled. Two of the items I need for the slushies come in just such containers. This motivated me to create my own slushies using what I have here so I can keep my trash allotment at zero for today.

I get some really nice e-mails from people who read this blog and I’m always thrilled to hear from anyone, especially someone with more ideas about living a kid-friendly organic life. Here are two products that were suggested by readers that can help reduce the trash created when it comes to packing lunches for your kids (or you):

Reusies –
Reusies are basically 100% cotton bags that are lined with a washable nylon coated material (BPA, Lead and Phthalate free). The Velcro closures on the outside allow you to close the bag tightly and keep the snacks inside instead of all over your lunch box. I was doubtful about this ability, but after using them this summer to carry snacks in my purse, my backpack, my kids’ backpacks, the floor of the car, and the pool bag, I can say that we’ve had no spillage. The bags come in several sizes to fit sandwiches and just about anything else you might put in a Ziploc bag. They can be washed in your washing machine (be sure to turn them inside out and attach their Velcro back to themselves or they will disappear only to be discovered in a sleeve or pantleg someday.) or just rinsed out with water. There are lots of color options to choose from and fun patterns kids will like. The only downside on these little beauties is that they are kind of pricey – 8.75 for large and $6.75 for small. My mom was able to make some with her sewing machine, so if you’re handy like that you might buy a couple and then figure it out for yourself. In the interest of full disclosure, I must confess that one of my children refuses to use the reusies, claiming that the food is stale by lunchtime. I’ve done my own tests to verify this and can honestly say it is completely in the mind of the beholder. Nothing I put in there got stale, even after a couple days. To learn more about them and/or order your own, check out http://www.reusies.com/.

The other product that I really liked, but was again kind of pricey, is Laptop lunchboxes. Each “Bento Set” (this is an international company so I’m not sure where the Bento comes from) is $24.95. The laptops were very cool for my 4th grader, but now that she is in 5th grade, not so much. I think they are perfect for younger children. The lunchbox is shaped like a small briefcase and has four plastic containers inside that nest in the designated compartments. They even come with a teeny, tiny adorable container with a lid for dip to go with your carrots. A slot on the side makes room for utensils. Only one of the containers has a lid, but the lap top is engineered so perfectly that none of the food migrates to any other sections. It’s a fun way to pack a lunch and creates no trash since all the sturdy plastic containers can easily be handwashed. I would love to see a bigger version of these laptops because my youngest child has such an appetite that I just can’t pack enough food in a laptop for him. Also, the laptop doesn’t have a handle or a place for a drink, so it’s a little unwieldy to carry to the lunchroom. The company does sell an assortment of bags to fit your drink and laptop inside, I was just too stingy to go for it. You can get your own Laptop Lunchbox at http://www.laptoplunches.com/.

Tupperware also makes some really nice sturdy sandwich keepers and snack holders. We got ours adorned with SpongeBob. They even have their own version of the laptop lunchbox which does hold a little more food, but also doesn’t have a handle. I’m sure by the time my kids are grown up, all these glitches will be worked out and there will be an uberlunchbox. Or maybe the schools will finally figure out how to serve a healthy, environmentally conscious lunch. I’m not holding my breath.

It is a challenge to be like Melissa, but it’s a good challenge. I hope you will make it your own.

Post-Post: I did make Watermelon Slushies and they turned out awesome. I’m a bit of a free from cook and didn’t measure anything, but here’s an approximation of the recipe:

Watermelon Slushies

4 cups chopped watermelon (frozen for at least an hour)
1 cup chopped ice
½ cup water
1/8-1/4 cup organic sugar
2 teaspoon lime juice
½ t Orange Essential Citrus Oil

Process thoroughly in blender. Add more water or ice to make the consistency you want. If you don’t have the citrus oil, you could use a ½ cup orange juice instead, or skip it altogether.

Not Just Any Old PB&J

It’s easy to get in to a rut when packing lunches. After all, you’re barely awake, you are definitely not feeling creative, and each kid wants something different. So you pack the same thing over and over. Now granted there are certain kids who like knowing what to expect. They find comfort in eating the same foods over and over again. I’ve got a couple of those. But one thing about a packed lunch – it always has a captive audience. The child is hungry and what else is she going to eat? She might as well try it. This is your chance! That’s the way I like to look at it. The rest of this week I’ll be posting lots of ideas, but we’ll start with something nearly everyone packs most weeks – peanut butter and jelly.

We definitely use this one the most. The difference between my peanut butter and jelly and the school’s peanut butter and jelly is that mine’s healthy. It’s on homemade bread made from whole wheat and spelt flours with flax seed and molasses. Yum. If you’ve got a bread machine, try this recipe (it’s at the end). If can’t make your own, organic bread is something you might want to invest in. After all, your child’s lunch is built on this ingredient. Organic bread doesn’t cost that much more than regular bread and freezes just fine – so watch for sales.

Making your own peanut butter is not difficult, but it is not necessarily less expensive than buying organic peanut butter. There are many different brands available these days and the competition is pretty fierce, so the price is reasonable. If you remember trying natural peanut butter when you were young, you probably remember how the oil tends to separate and gather at the top. It is definitely separated when you first open a jar, but organic peanut butter should be kept in the refrigerator, so there’s any easy way to solve that problem. When you first open the jar, take a good strong mixing spoon or spatula and mix up the peanut butter thoroughly (this will take some time), then place it in the refrigerator. The peanut butter won’t separate again unless you heat it up.

There are some really yummy brands to choose from. I love Trader Joe’s brand organic Valencia peanut butter. The ingredients are peanuts and olive oil. The Valencia peanuts are naturally a little sweet, so the peanut butter is delicious. My kids also like the Maranatha brand. Try a few, you’ll find your favorite.

I do make my own peanut butter for myself. My kids turn their noses at the course texture, but they don’t know what they’re missing. I mix equal parts soy nuts and peanuts (about 1 ½ cups each) and add some honey (3 tablespoons) and olive oil (5-7 tablespoons), then process in the food processor for several minutes – delicious. You can also make it with other kinds of nuts. If you raise your children on this peanut butter before they get a slurp of processed smooth peanut butter – they’ll never know any different and probably won’t like processed peanut butter when they try it.

You’ll definitely save tons of money if you can make your own jelly, but that requires time and berries, so I’ll save instructions on that for summer. For now, opt for brands that have less sugar and few ingredients. Read the label and check around at local produce markets. Many times they have homemade canned jellies and jams to sell. These may be heavy in sugar but are probably much healthier than store bought jelly.


Whole Wheat Bread with Spelt flour, Flax seed, and Molasses
(bread machine recipe)

Place these ingredients in your machine in the following order:
1 ½ cup water
1 ½ Tablespoon olive oil
2 Tablespoons molasses
2 Tablespoons succanot (or 1 tablespoon cane sugar)
2 teaspoons celtic sea salt (or 1 ½ teaspoons regular salt)
1/3 cup ground flax seed
3 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup spelt flour
2 teaspoons yeast

Cook in bread maker on whole wheat setting.
Note: When packing bread machine bread sandwiches, I cut off at least two sides of crust so the sandwich isn’t so intimidating and so it will fit in the sandwich keeper. If you are trying to disguise the homemade bread, cut off all the crusts and your kids won’t know the difference.