by Becky Smith Gallops

School days are here again and moms will find themselves packing plenty of lunches in the coming school year. Amazingly, the average school child creates 67 pounds of lunchtime trash per year! To cut down on the waste associated with your child's lunches and help keep our environment clean, take a look at the tips below and "green" your children's lunchboxes.

• Instead of sending drink pouches, juice boxes or plastic water bottles, use the new stainless steel bottles to send drinks in.

• Use stainless steel containers for food instead of plastic or waste producing baggies, or check out snackTAXIs (www.snacktaxi.com) which are reusable snack and sandwich bags.

• Send a cloth napkin and silverware in place of paper napkins and plastic utensils.

• Use lunch sacks made from organic cotton or recycled plastic soda bottles. Check out www.reusablebags.com, which also has a reusable bamboo utensil set.

• You can pack a healthy lunch for your kids AND help support local growers by buying fruits and veggies from your local farmer's market or food co-op.

• Make soups from fresh vegetables and legumes to pack in an eco-friendly thermos instead of using canned soups that require recycling.

• When making dinner, make enough for leftovers. This will not only save you time on a busy morning, but it will also save the energy used in cooking a separate meal.

It's not as difficult as you might think to pack an environmentally conscious lunch for your kids to take to school. It may take a bit longer and require a little more thought, but you are saving a few trees, reducing landfill waste, and leaving the planet a little cleaner for your children.