Lunch box and portable food ideas

• Use a lunch box with built in compartments; this way you can do away with plastic wrap.
• Instead of using glad wrap or plastic zip bags, wrap food in wax wraps or pack in a reusable pocket or leave it loose.
• Making your own snacks is healthier, cheaper and will reduce packaging waste. If you double the recipe and freeze, you will soon build up a healthy stockpile; this will make packing lunches fast and easy. For recipes, try the Rubbish Trip's cracker recipes, dips and muesli bars or Love Food Hate Waste fruit salad muffins. 
• Baby food can be easy to make. You can often blend up parts of your main meal then decant into reusable pouches or into an ice tray and keep in the freezer. Check out some tips for reducing children's food waste from Love Food Hate Waste. 
• Do away with single use suckies and buy big containers of yogurt to decant into reusable pouches. 
• Don't forget to pack your reusables when you head out on adventures: water bottle, coffee cup, reusable cutlery, cloth napkin, handkerchief and a container for takeaways. 

Above article courtesy of Wellington City Council.

School lunches

You can buy a partitioned lunchbox for your child’s school lunch or you can simply re-use an ice cream container. 

Sandwiches can be placed in wax wraps. Alternatively you can buy clip-shut plastic containers intended for sandwiches from the kitchen section of many department stores. 

Put fruit in whole, or crispy fruit such as apples can be cut into slices and placed in a leak-proof reusable container. 

Avoid multipacks of chips, dried fruit in tiny boxes and individually packaged portions of cheese. Not only are these expensive but these come in a lot of packaging, most of which can’t be recycled. Instead, buy larger containers of food items (such as a family bag of chips, big box of crackers, a block of cheese, 1kg yoghurt and so on) and put smaller portions of these into zip-lock bags (and re-use these!) or in small reusable leak-proof containers.

Freeze a small drink bottle and place in the lunchbox with the food. It will generally thaw out by lunchtime and will keep the rest of the food cool.