Here's My Great Green Idea!

Let me tell you first how this idea came to be!

My daughter, Adrienne, was entering middle school last year. Her school does not have lockers, so the kids have to carry around their lunches all day. Adrienne soon found that carrying around an empty lunch box half of the day was kindof a drag! She opted for a brown paper bag so she could fold it up and fit it into her backpack when her lunch was done. Being very earth conscience, Adrienne tried to reuse her brown paper bag at least a few times before throwing it away. After a few days though, the bags always became grubby and sticky.

One day Adrienne came home and asked me if there was something I could do. She needed something small, compact, reusable and washable. I found a fabric type of grocery bag, cut and sewed it into the size of a regular brown paper lunch bag. It was an immediate HIT! Adrinne's friends saw this and asked me to make some for them as well. I went into "production" and made about 500! I've given most away, and I get constant requests for more from the kids AND the parents!

Here is what it is: Reusable lunch bag! Same size as a standard brown paper bag but with handles and a Velcro closure. It is made out of 30% post consumer product. The fabric can be washed and is strong enough to use over and over again. When it gets too used...the fabric is 100% recyclable! As a bonus, I was delighted when I saw the kids decorating them to create their own stye using rivets, jewels an sharpie markers!

Although we do not know any exact numbers...Adrienne and I figure that you can use one of these bags a minimum of 60+ times. That's 3-4 bags per year compared to using 100+ brown paper bags per year. The saving on our earths resources would certainly be substantial if everyone switched over and used REcyclabel/REusable Lunch bags!