Students bring their lunchboxes into class to explore how much of the waste is single-use packaging and discuss ideas on how to reduce this.
Learning objective
Students understand food packaging and record information in a table or graph. They discuss options on how to avoid, reuse and recycle.
Curriculum links
Data representation and interpretation
Cross-curriculum priority: Sustainability
Literacy
Numeracy
Critical and creative thinking
Personal and social capabilityData, graphing, packaging, wrapping, avoid, recycle
This lesson explores the types of packaging found in a school lunch box and how this packaging can be avoided.
A waste-free lunch contains no single-use packaging. Food and drinks are packed in reusable containers within a reusable lunch bag or box. All containers are resealable so that leftover food and drink can be consumed (or composted) later.
Holding a waste-free lunch day is a great way to:
- avoid food and packaging waste in your school
- help students and parents to understand the benefits of a
waste-free lunch - educate and inspire students and the wider school community to avoid and recover waste
Student lunch boxes or examples
- Students to bring their lunchboxes into class. Discuss each item and the way it is packaged:
- Why do we use wrapping or packaging?
- What is the packaging made from?
- Can the packaging be avoided, reused, or recycled?
Note: It is best to avoid juice boxes, plastic straws and plastic cutlery as these items cannot be recycled in Western Australia.
- Students to bring their lunchboxes into class. Discuss each item and the way it is packaged:
Why do we use wrapping or packaging?
What is the packaging made from? - Make a list of packaging using the table format below and tally up the students’ waste. The list may contain natural (for example, fruit skin), plastic wrap, plastic zip lock bags, foil, chip packets, cardboard, aluminium cans, plastic bottles, juice boxes and so on.
Type of packagingTallyReusableRecyclableAlternativeType of packaging Tally Reusable Recyclable Alternative - Create a graph of the packaging in students’ lunchboxes. Compare this to packaging on the waste-free lunch day. Discuss alternative ways that foods could be brought to school so that waste is avoided.
- Work out the cost difference between a packaged lunch and a waste-free lunch and how much this would save parents over one school year.
