Thursday- Green Ideas-The Anti-Ziploc Bag- Lunchskins! Chic and Smart!

Have you seen the "garbage patch" in the Pacific Ocean? It's pretty horrible. It is located between Los Angeles and Hawaii and is a floating mass of plastic garbage, roughly the size of Texas. It has been increasing tenfold since 1945. Did you know it takes roughly 400 years for plastics to photograde? They never biodegrade. The floating plastic is then eaten by whales, turtles, birds-you name and it then it kills them. If you want to know more, listen to this great NPR story.


Not to get on my soap box but we must find ways to rid "disposable" plastic from our lives. Because it is not really "disposable." Recycling of course is # 1 in the effort to combat this problem. Reusable products is another- items that can be washed and reused (and then recycled) is key. I found this great line of lunch and snack bags in Oprah's O magazine. It was started by 3 green moms to combat the use of plastic sandwich bags. This idea came about after learning that 20 million sandwich bags go into landfills every day! Yes, every day. I had to check that number. So they created "lunchskins" which are very chic and very smart reusable bags that can be used for sandwiches and snacks and then wiped down or put in the dishwasher! So easy and so necessary! The sandwich bags are $8.95, the snack bags are $7.95 and their sub bags are $10.95 and they are lead free, bpa free and phthalate free. Their designs are bold, bright, fun and have Merimekko feeling to them. And you can also pick up a Klean Kanteen bottle and disposable and biodegradable cornstarch forks and spoons! I've seen (and blogged) about several of these bags, but to date, these are my favorite! They will also help you do fundraisers at your school. Brilliant!

They have calculated that since they started selling these lovely creations, more than 12 million plastic lunch bags have been saved from entering landfills or our lovely oceans. Their goal is to reach 100 million by 2011! You've got to love this determination! And they give 1% of their online sales to www.canaltrust.org. What's not to love?