Sometimes I really like stumbling onto a good article so I can throw it up on the blog and hear your responses. This article over on Treehugger was one such article. The story goes something like this:
A school in Canada decided to start requiring litterless lunches, allowing only reusable containers and water bottles. Juice boxes, which become trash as soon as kids are done with them, do not fit the criteria for the litterless lunch program, so they banned them. While the school does offer a recycling program, here’s what they had to say about the fate of most juice boxes:
“Kids don’t understand how to dispose of juice boxes. They put them in the garbage instead of recycling them. Wrong. They put them in the recycling but forget to remove the straw. Wrong. They put them in the recycling but they’re still half full. Wrong. They leave them on the floor in the lunchroom. Wrong.”
Their passion for being anti-juice boxes made me laugh for some reason, although you all know I’m a big supporter of reducing waste!! So now I want to know what your thoughts are on this. Does it annoy you when schools tell you what you can and cannot pack for your kids (aside from allergy triggering foods like peanuts, obviously)? Do you think the school is overstepping their bounds? Do you think it’s an awesome step in the right direction when it comes to reducing waste? Do you think juice boxes are nothing but boxes of sugar that make kids crazy hyper so you think this is awesome 2-fold?
On Team Juice Box or Team Zero Waste?
Peace out girl scout,
~Mavis
Lesley says
“Awesome two-fold,” like you said Mavis. Boxes of sugar, wasteful to boot. The kiddos need water to hydrate and that’s about it! Great article.
Crystal says
Lame. Just another attempt to control personal rights. The question that always pops in my head with these types of things is “what’s next?”
While I agree with reduce,recycle,reuse,
I value my personal freedoms more.
Judy says
But read the ingredients, ask your dentist, become more informed on the JUICE …it’ s just not a healthy drink from a box or from a reusable container. Then evaluate the issue of the boxes & straws along with the waste of resourses & energy required to produce them. If that’s not enough look at the price. Teach kids to drink water…..from a reusable earth friendly container. I used to give my kids juice when I didn’t know better. Know better=Do better.
Debby says
If the have to take home the reusable containers, then why not their garbage?
Ashley says
I just think its silly they are not holding the kids more accountable for how they should be recycling their juice boxes. Maybe they should use this whole problem as a teaching moment instead of banning the boxes entirely.
My daughter always brings her lunch garbage home (which is great because I wash the baggies).
Laura says
I worked for a year in a school cafeteria that was moving to zero waste. First to go was plastic utensils – parents held a huge drive and collected loads of stainless steel utensils, more than enough to last all week (although utensils were washed daily). In six weeks it was all almost gone. Why? Because the kids just threw the utensils away – the school/parents did absolutely NO monitoring so kids just dumped the stainless like they did with the old plastic utensils. The washable trays were a little harder for them to throw away, but that didn’t mean they didn’t try. The parents wanted to recycle juice boxes and pouches, but again expected an already overloaded and overworked kitchen staff to monitor the kids. That good idea failed as well.
In other words, without proper training or reinforcement, or forbidding kids to bring juice boxes, etc. any sort of recycling plan in not likely to work or work well. If parents want this then THEY need to be in charge of implementing AND monitoring, i.e. standing at the trash or recycling and reminding kids how to do it, day after day after day . . . . Just coming up with an idea and expecting elementary school kids to consistently remember how and what to do just takes too long and costs too much, or expecting already busy staff to take on another task just doesn’t work.
I like the idea of having kids bring home their own garbage, but that divides kids who buy their lunch versus kids who bring lunch from home. We taught our kids to bring home plastic bags so we could wash them, but mainly switched to washable containers and cloth napkins to cut back on trash overall.
Erin says
That’s really sad and surprising. Our school has both paid lunchroom supervisors and parent volunteers, so monitoring what is thrown away is not an issue. Unfortunately, because they have trouble keeping kitchen staff and are trying to save money, they decided to stop washing dish and silverware and switched back to disposables!!!!!! I just . . .
Michael says
Enough is enough. Stay out of my kids’ lunch & I’ll stay out of the way you teach.
Charlotte says
Two thoughts. 1. Our school (in Canada) has a “boomerang lunch” and a milk program, the empty containers are sent home… we choose to participate and recycle at home, simple. I agree that educating would work best instead of banning. 2. My family avoids juice boxes and we are trying to limit the use of straws.
Lunchlady says
NO JUICE boxes! liquid sugar. I hate them the kids at school (High school were I work) will ALWAYS choose those over fresh fruit. They make a sticky mess and the kids always try to pick up more than one stealing!) I wish they would go away for ever. We only serve them as an option at breakfast but I’d like to see them go away for good. They are expensive to boot.
Ali says
Interesting and timely article. I’ve just been put in charge of our school’s recycling efforts to reduce waste. Past experience has shown me that the motivation has to come from the kids. Not the parents. Not the teachers. Not the education department. If they come up with the solutions to the problems it’s more likely to succeed. ie put the kids in charge of the rubbish
Deb says
Twenty years ago the little Montessori our son attended had a no garbage policy that was too simple. Kids just tucked all of the lunch gear, uneaten food or what have you back in their lunch box. And they asked us to send cloth napkins. It saved them money and it became our family policy long after we moved on
erin in iowa says
Are they really any different than the milk boxes the other kids buy at lunch? Those just get thrown away as well. Maybe they should focus on how much food gets thrown away everyday instead! Sit through lunch with some elementary kids and you’ll know what I’m talking about.
Pat says
I agree with the food waste and not just because of picky children. When my youngest son was in middle school, he was told that he had too many proteins on his plate. Food was taken from his plate and thrown in the garbage. As a foster parent I am all too aware that school lunch is the only meal that some children have all day.
AmyWW says
When I was in elementary school the kids who bought lunch each day (I did some years) sorted their flatware into a bin and trash into a garbage can before stacking their trays. It wasn’t that hard. There was a paper napkin and a cardboard milk carton and that was all the trash that was generated. I’m sure all those kids use regular stainless steel flatware at home and manage not to throw it all away.
If you brought your lunch from home (I did that some years) then you used a lunch box which came with a thermos. You put your juice or milk or water or whatever in there. No juice boxes whatsoever. You took everything home with you each day.
I think a juice box is a ridiculous invention. I’m sure there is a scenario in which it is necessary rather than just more convenient but I can’t think what that might be right at this moment.
Linda says
Lunch boxes, reusable cups, real silverware are used where i work. My kids had juiceboxes 20 years ago and the school had pictures on the trash can of what went were. Learned yesterday that France is going to ban ALL plastic things like plates,silver and bags. So maybe eventually we will get the idea.
Deborah says
I don’t think schools should tell a parent what to pack in their child’s lunches. Granted, some parents just give their child anything to eat, but the school, therefore the government shouldn’t have a say. This is just my opinion. As for juice boxes in the lunches . . . Teach the child how to separate the box and the straw and put them in their recycle bens. All children of school age should be accountable for their actions.
Jennifer says
When my younger child was in elementary school, the local garbage company that had the contract for our school district chose to stop offering free garbage services to the district. The district then had to pay by the pound for trash. Guess what? The district created a massive push to teach recycling, emptying of all liquids, etc. The biggest issue wasn’t teaching the skill, but monitoring the success, as other commenters have said. Schools often can’t afford the man-hours to do the extra work of monitoring , so volunteers of parents and kids may need to be organized at for awhile so the routine is reinforced… I don’t think a school can nor should ban a beverage. But they can definitely tell kids to take their own trash home. Why not? There would still be a problem of drippy lunch boxes in backpacks if the kids don’t empty their juice boxes, but again, it’s easy to teach. I think single use juice boxes are stupid, pricy, and wasteful, plus junk food. But that’s the parents’ problem.
Erin says
Definitely lost a learning opportunity by not teaching kids what to do with them, but also great that they’re encouraging families to quit unhealthy juices in favor of water. I don’t like the idea of telling parents what they can and can’t feed their kids. There was another story I saw recently about schools in Italy penalizing kids for bringing cold lunches – making them eat alone in the office while all the other kids eat the school lunches. Apparently they don’t think parents can make that decision at all!
Probably the best compromise would be to insist that the kids take all their trash back home in their boxes – no waste for the school and the parents still get to decide what their child eats.
Preppy Pink Crocodile says
I think that’s an awesome policy! And from my understanding it isn’t telling parents what their kid cannot consume. It’s the container. So a parent can still send juice in a reusable take home container.
KK
Melanie says
Yes! Your point that a parent can still send juice in a reausable take home container was completely overlooked. It is so not necessary to have juice as part of a lunch. Serve it at home for breakfast if you have to.
Nicola says
Way to go Canada! Great initiative! The wasteless lunches is not about bringing your garbage home, it’s about reducing/minimising packaging waste in the first place. I wish that school well in their endeavour and hope that our school moves to this too.
Cheri says
Any public institution that tries to regulate something like that is on a slippery slope. I am anti-waste and almost never buy juice boxes, and I wish they weren’t around, but this is America. I’m not going to tell another parent how to feed their kid. Those kinds of change come about through education and heart changes; it shouldn’t be by force. Schools can regulate what they serve in the lunchroom but not what comes from home.
Crystal says
Agreed! This is a very slippery slope. Surprised to see so many in favor of this type of regulation.
Sounds like the sugar police would like to ban juice altogether. Watch out for orange juice…..
Karen Phipps says
I see pros and con. It would be nice to see us recyling more. Plus being more concerned with what our kids and Grandkids are actually consuming. we have food allergies in the family. I worry about what is being eaten, and how the child is responding.
I have watched kids go bezerk, not because of sugar, but…because they have eaten something that makes them feel very besar. (SP)
My family does well with a high protein diet and limited fruits & sugars…what would that say to the “protein police”.
Donna says
I think it’s great the people are thinking about this. I take my picnic basket with plates, silverware and cups to all our pot lucks, but I certainly wouldn’t force others to do so! I hate to see all the garbage, but education is the key, not forcing your views on others through harsh bans. Change the world through education and example, not dictatorship.
Jane says
I’m not big on juice boxes, but I also don’t like being told what I can send in my kids’ lunches. If my kids have trash in their lunchbox, they keep it in there until they get home and throw it out here anyways.
Denise says
I agree that juice is not the healthy beverage we used to think it was but I also think that families should have the right to choose. I think this is a bigger issue than just juice boxes. Garbage is the real issue. Maybe the schools could find some videos to show the children highlighting garbage and how recycling can make a difference. Show them the garbage islands and the animals with pop can rings around their necks. That might be too graphic for some age groups but there must be instructional videos out there for different ages. I think education is the key. Maybe weigh the garbage vs. recycling or offer incentives for recycling, make it fun! Mavis mentioned the man who was going to wear his daily garbage on his body for a month to emphasize how much garbage one person can generate. Let’s let the children learn and make these decisions for themselves. I think once they see the impact they can make, they will choose the healthy path for the planet.