Green your kid’s lunch and cut waste too

Americans throw out 100 billion plastic bags each year. We use 60,000 of them every five seconds. Such widespread use causes the deaths of over 100,000 seabirds, dolphins, whales, and other sea animals each year. They mistake these bags for food, ingest them and die horribly or become entangled in the plastic and suffocate to death.

The average schookid’s lunch uses 4 plastic bags. Multiply that by 5 days a week and that’s a lot of plastic.

“(There’s) a new generation of environmental awareness (and) of teaching (in schools),” says Stephanie Stiller. Her company. Bright Bin, makes The Next Generation Lunch Box, a bright-colored, two-tiered lunchbox made of #5 polypropylene plastic.

This lunchbox was designed to replace plastic bags and the small food storage containers that parents generally put in lunchboxes.

With three young children herself, Stiller wanted to design a better, greener lunchbox alternative with no parts or removable lids that could be misplaced. Taking the concept of the Obento box a step further, she created this easy-open lunchbox.

Its two sections are arranged in commonsense styled compartments. The top section easily fits a sandwich, salad, even mac and cheese. The bottom section compartments are perfect for a piece of fruit, some crackers, veggie sticks and the like.

The lunchbox is leak resistant but Stiller doesn’t recommend putting foods like yogurt, applesauce, soup or other liquids in it.

This lunchbox comes with a built-in carrying handle that even little fingers can open. And it has a Velcro brand fastener parents can use to attach it to their child’s insulated lunch carrying bag – an easy way to ensure nothing gets left behind or lost.

The Next Generation Lunch Box is made without harsh or toxic chemicals. It contains no BPA, phthalates, lead or PVC. All it’s materials have been third party tested and certified for safety.

The L'Artiste lets kids decorate their lunchbox every day

It’s also dishwasher safe. Just open it up like a book and place it face down on the top rack for easy cleaning. The lunchbox is microwavable too, but it’s NOT recommended to ever microwave plastic containers of any kind.

With the growing crisis of childhood obesity in mind, Stiller incorporated the idea of portion control into this great lunchbox. The roomy compartments encourage parents to put in a few crackers or a medium piece of fruit, giving kids enough nutritious food without overloading.

Bright Bin also offers a variety of insulated lunch bags. One of them, the “L’Artiste”, lets kids decorate their lunch bag every day with the four non-toxic washable markers it comes with, then bring it home, wash off the artwork and decorate it again the next day!

One of the many fun lunchbox carriers carried by BrightBin

If you’re looking for a great fundraiser, The Next Generation Lunch Box is it. Using a flexible fundraising model, Stiller works with schools to set a price that fits their economic circumstances.

“There’s a lot of lessons to be learned from this Lunch Box,” Stiller said.

“It’s easy and convenient for families to reduce their amount of waste by using this every day,” she said, “and it save time and money.”

Available in blue or cherry red – with new colors coming – the Next Generation Lunch Box may soon be carried by Whole Foods. It’s currently available online at Lunchboxes.com, AGreenHorizon.com and BrightBin.com.