After reusable water bottles, the most critical way my family has avoided single-use plastics is by eliminating lunch waste. The idea of washing and drying and keeping up with anything extra is entirely overwhelming, but single-use plastics are incredibly problematic, so we needed to find something practical and easy. After YEARS of trial and error, we’ve narrowed it down to two simple and relatively inexpensive products that make packing and cleaning up school/camp/travel lunches a breeze.
The containers we use the most are reusable bags made by Russbe. We tried reusable bags in the past, and they got super-grody after a few weeks. There was always some unreachable corner, or they never dried well, and then I would start to wonder if my children’s lunches were turning into science experiments.
That has not happened with the Russbe bags. The way they’re designed allows them to stand up for easy filling and also eliminates any dark, creepy corners. Every part of the bag is easily accessible for cleaning, and we set them upside down to dry. Sometimes they need to be shaken out or repositioned if some water gets trapped, but all told, they are easy to wash and dry.
The Russbe bags are just the right weight for holding almost every part of our lunches, wet or dry. The Ziploc-style closure gives a good snap, and we haven’t had any leaks, even with wet-ish foods like cut fruit. They come in two sizes (sandwich size and snack size), and we have scads of both. Another advantage of these bags is that they store flat, so the days of keeping up with lunch Tupperware are over at my house.
The one thing I don’t like to use the Russbe bags for is sandwiches. I find steering sandwiches in and out of a baggie to be like a sliding puzzle that never ends well. For sandwiches, we use U Konserve Food Wraps. These are made of a thick, flexible circle of plastic with a well-placed piece of Velcro to keep everything in place. We make the sandwiches on the wrap itself (yay for not using extra plates!), and then fold up the sides and secure when it’s ready to go, like a little sandwich burrito.
The U Konserve Food Wraps have three additional advantages for sandwich wrapping, in addition to not fighting to get the sandwich in straight. First, you can use the wrapper itself as a food holder, allowing you to eat whatever is inside without touching the food. Having a holder comes in handy when you’re out and about and don’t have easy access
to a place to wash your hands. (Less problematic in the age of hand sanitizer, but I still prefer not to handle my sandwich without having truly washed with soap and water. Call me old fashioned.)
Second, cleaning these things is ridiculously easy; a quick scrub on each side and you’re done. They dry quickly in the drainboard or on a towel. It’s hard to keep the Velcro closure looking totally clean, but that part stays well away from the food, so I just squint and move on.
And last, their design accommodates almost any size or shape of food. No more trying to squish oddly shaped challah sandwiches into a baggie. You can just adjust the fold slightly to make most anything fit.
I’m a person who avoids one-trick ponies at all costs, and I also despise adding extra steps to our already-busy routine. But the Russbe bags (around $10 for 8 bags, depending on design) and the U Konserve Food Wraps ($8 for two wraps) cover 99% of our portable lunch needs and take up next to no space in our kitchen or lunch boxes. They weigh almost nothing, are at the lowest cost end of the food container spectrum, and help us avoid producing tons of trash. I’m not going to say that these two items make any part of lunches a dream, but finding them has allowed us to create a workable earth-friendly routine for everyone.
photo credit: russbe.com
Comments