Eco friendly lunch bags are the eco-conscious person’s answer to plastic bags. These eco friendly alternatives are made of materials like hemp and will decompose in about six months, so they’re better for the environment than their durable but environmentally unfriendly counterparts. Here’s how eco friendly lunch bags are helping save our environment.
Help reduce pollution
Plastic bags are terrible for the environment. They don’t biodegrade, so over time they can leach toxic chemicals into the soil and the water supply. Other eco friendly lunch bag alternatives like cotton or hemp won’t harm ecosystems if left to break down in a landfill because they aren’t made of plastic or any other petroleum-based materials that could potentially pollute our planet if incinerated.
Save energy
Because eco friendly lunch bags are biodegradable, they’re eco-friendly from start to finish. This means that the manufacturing process doesn’t use up as much energy and doesn’t produce as many greenhouse gases or other emissions.
Help save wildlife
While eco friendly lunch bags don’t have a direct impact on animal populations, plastic shopping bags pose a serious threat to animals like sea turtles who mistake them for fish or other types of food and suffocate when they consume too many. Recently, a dead whale was found with 80 pounds of plastic in its stomach. Plastics decompose very slowly – not all plastics can be recycled because there is simply too much unnecessary plastic polluting our atmosphere. It takes about 1000 years for a single plastic bag to decompose. Doing the math, that means not a single plastic bag has biodegraded on any landfill to this day!
Save money in the long run
In addition to helping the environment, eco friendly lunch bags are also economically efficient. Eco friendly lunch bags are often made from recycled material, which is not expensive as using freshly created petroleum products like polystyrene, therefore they’re cheaper than their counterparts on the market today.
Several eco-conscious companies creating these sustainable lunch bags are able to offer these bags at cheap prices these days; because oil isn’t being mined for these eco-products, it keeps their sourcing costs low and hence their sale prices low as a result.
Cleaning eco friendly lunch bags
Sustainable lunch bags are eco friendly from start to end, but that doesn’t mean they never need cleaning. Just like any other fabric, eco friendly lunch bags can get dirty or discolored with certain types of foods. Some eco friendly lunch bags even have stains on them because of improper storage or packaging.
Luckily, washing eco friendly lunch bags can be as simple as washing any other fabric. If you think the fabric may become wrinkly after washing, add a bit of softener in there and you’re good to go! Many eco friendly lunch bag companies also offer eco friendly cleaners that don’t use harmful chemicals and are safe for the planet, so if you’re not sure what to do, you can always purchase them along with your bags.
Additional tips on how to reduce your environmental impact
Everything has a life, and so do these sustainable lunch bags. You can either recycle them (wherever applicable) or reuse them for things like storage for the common items you may have lying around, or even as a rag you can use to clean the house.
Tell your friends and family about eco friendly alternatives for their lunches, especially if they don’t pay attention to the eco friendly options around them. Motivating them towards a more sustainable life can bring a huge impact in the longer run.
Plant some fruit trees or vegetables in your own backyard that won’t require packaging when you harvest them. This also means you can use organic fertilizers or even your own compost instead of the chemicals typically used by large companies, ensuring the food is safe for your children, everytime.
Pack your eco friendly lunch bag in a way that is similar to how it would be sold at the store (in a very organized manner). Properly organizing your lunch would help you fit more and avoid spillage, therefore reducing the amount of bags you would need to carry your lunch and increasing the longevity of your sustainable lunch bag.
Other eco friendly alternatives include solar panels, wind turbines, and eco friendly cars like electric vehicles that offer customers a sustainable lifestyle with an overall reduced environmental impact. However, these alternatives are pretty costly and might not be for everyone.
But it doesn’t have to be this expensive; in fact, becoming more eco friendly can be one of the simplest and cheapest things you could do.
Conclusion
The eco friendly trend is growing because more people are becoming aware of how important it is to protect the environment; eco friendly lunch bags are an easy way to become conscious about protecting our planet and keeping future generations safe from harmful chemicals that already pollute the majority of the land, water, and even air. Not only that, small steps like these also help preserve nature and prevent the disruption of the ecosystem, while saving money, time, and energy in the long run.