What lunch box/bag does your teen boy carry to school?

[aprilgail]

. At home, we paid by pound for trash removal, recycling was free.

wow if they had that here people might actually be bothered to recycle! We can put out pretty much as much garbage as you want, some pickups we have 6 pails of garbage out if we did some kind of cleaning out of something in the house, my daughter and I just emptied out our cabinets of all expired food and it filled up an entire pail.

 

[mombrontrent]

wow if they had that here people might actually be bothered to recycle! We can put out pretty much as much garbage as you want, some pickups we have 6 pails of garbage out if we did some kind of cleaning out of something in the house, my daughter and I just emptied out our cabinets of all expired food and it filled up an entire pail.

We are only allowed two bags every two weeks with each bag costing an extra $3. Recycling is free, comes every week and has no limit.

 

[mjkacmom]

We have free recycling (once a week) and free garbage pick up (twice a week). Unlimited cans.

Ds12 starts each year with a lunchbox, when he loses it he gets an old lunchbox, and when he loses that one, he takes paper bags (usually October). Dd12 uses one similar to those posted on this thread, dd14 has a girlier one. Neither of my HS kids ever used one in HS.

 

[zoemurr]

wow if they had that here people might actually be bothered to recycle! We can put out pretty much as much garbage as you want, some pickups we have 6 pails of garbage out if we did some kind of cleaning out of something in the house, my daughter and I just emptied out our cabinets of all expired food and it filled up an entire pail.

That's really too bad.

Here if we clean out a cupboard none of it would go in the trash. All of the cans would get emptied and recycled and the boxes would be broken down and recycled.

Kids have recycle bins in every classroom. We seldom have more than one small bag of trash a week at home. Is there somewhere you can take it? My MIL doesn't have pick up but takes it to a center every few weeks. So,much better for the environment. I can't wait until water bottles are banned everywhere. We survived just fine without them for years and years. We take our hydro flasks every where and they stay cold for 24 hours.

I'm in Rochester NY and we can recycle everything except food waste, and that is coming soon.

 

[CdnCarrie]

wow if they had that here people might actually be bothered to recycle! We can put out pretty much as much garbage as you want, some pickups we have 6 pails of garbage out if we did some kind of cleaning out of something in the house, my daughter and I just emptied out our cabinets of all expired food and it filled up an entire pail.

Why do you have so much expired food? That's a lot of money going straight to the garbage! Wowzers! I can't imagine.

 

[shoney]

That's really too bad.

Here if we clean out a cupboard none of it would go in the trash. All of the cans would get emptied and recycled and the boxes would be broken down and recycled.

Kids have recycle bins in every classroom. We seldom have more than one small bag of trash a week at home. Is there somewhere you can take it? My MIL doesn't have pick up but takes it to a center every few weeks. So,much better for the environment. I can't wait until water bottles are banned everywhere. We survived just fine without them for years and years. We take our hydro flasks every where and they stay cold for 24 hours.

I'm in Rochester NY and we can recycle everything except food waste, and that is coming soon.

We have that on Long Island too. They pick up cans, bottles, glass, plastics, newspaper, cardboard, etc every week. My neighbors and I put out recyclables every week.
I did recently find out that you aren't supposed to put out pizza boxes....after 20 years! LOL No boxes where food touched them. Cereal box, yes, as long as you remove the plastic bag inside.

My sons school just got rid of styrofoam trays this year, for a brief amount of time, then went back to them. They used cardboard for a little while. When I was in school 70's/80's, they had hard reusable trays that were washed. They do have bins for water bottles throughout the schools.

Garbage is picked up 2 x a week and recyclables 1x. We may not pay per pound or bag, but check those tax bills....

 

[shoney]

Why do you have so much expired food? That's a lot of money going straight to the garbage! Wowzers! I can't imagine.

I do the same thing. Things just get ignored or half eaten. I could easily throw that much away. Honestly, when I do, I throw it in the regular garbage. I don't take the time to open, dump, rinse and recycle. SShhhhhh don't tell DH!

 

[ashley0139]

When I was in high school (early-mid 2000s), I brought a brown paper bag every day. I don't remember ever seeing anyone with a lunch box. Now I bring a bento box to the office every day in one of those reusable lunch bags that folds down (like this: http://www.amazon.com/BYO-Rambler-Lunch-Teal-B-LB35-BTE/dp/B005HJWQGK).

 

[aprilgail]

Why do you have so much expired food? That's a lot of money going straight to the garbage! Wowzers! I can't imagine.

Things get shoved to the back, some things we open, eat some of and no one likes it enough to go back for more LOL. Some of that was also from the fridge- expired salad dressing, yogurts etc.

 

[mjkacmom]

That's really too bad.

Here if we clean out a cupboard none of it would go in the trash. All of the cans would get emptied and recycled and the boxes would be broken down and recycled.

Kids have recycle bins in every classroom. We seldom have more than one small bag of trash a week at home. Is there somewhere you can take it? My MIL doesn't have pick up but takes it to a center every few weeks. So,much better for the environment. I can't wait until water bottles are banned everywhere. We survived just fine without them for years and years. We take our hydro flasks every where and they stay cold for 24 hours.

I'm in Rochester NY and we can recycle everything except food waste, and that is coming soon.

We fill up 3 kitchen garbage bags - per day! However, it's rare that I throw out food. I'll spend $300 at the store, the fridge will be packed, and a week later just have condiments.

 

[penn19]

Unless that lunch program was the one paying for and packing my kids lunch I would give a rats behind what they frowned on or not. My daughter takes either a brown paper bag or one of the plastic bags from the food store if we run out of paper bags. A bottle of Poland spring water, random things in ziplock bags, a package of cookies and at the end of lunch all of it is empty and goes in the trash at the school. She would never ever buy lunch at school, the food is worse then when I went as a kid. A few times a week they get food dropped off, the other day she said so many kids had pizza delivered that they had to stack all the empty boxes by the door for the custodians because they couldn't fit them all in the trash containers.

Brown paper bags here also. Once my kids hit 4th grade? Not sure when, the lunch boxes went away and the brown paper bags started. And zip lock baggies. Maybe its a regional thing? (haha, Ive always wanted to say that on the Dis).

 

[jmb912]

My DS (incoming 8th grader) carries the insulated box from Costco that a PP showed earlier. The previous one lasted 2 years. I'll buy him a new one this year. He likes it because it expands. I believe he will need two sandwiches this year plus the other snacks, fruit, and dessert. And yet he still weighs under 100#! When I die, I want to come back as a teen-aged boy just so I can eat and eat and eat and never gain weight!

My teen DDs (both in HS) carry cuter Vera Bradley insulated lunch bags. There is a big environmental push at the HS. I see almost every kid of both genders carrying reusable water bottles and one of my DD's friends was very pleased when we switched to reusable sandwich boxes from plastic sandwich bags this year.

About the same here! Ds14 just finished 8th grade. He had a reusable black zipper lunch bag. He only does ham subs for sandwiches so he always gotten ice pack. Also takes yogurt quite often. No lockers at school so lunch is carried with you in your backpack all day. He usually bought pizza at school twice a week. But pizza and milk is $3, plus a bag of sun chips and an extra milk ended up costing $4.50 on those days!

Dd16 has used a Vera Bradley lunch bag for the past 5 years (she's gone through a couple). I can throw them through the washing machine if needed which I like! She is a Pbj and yogurt everyday girl. So again she uses an ice pack. The high school has over 3000 students so she refuses to even try and buy in the line. Also carries her backpack and lunchbox all day (no lockers).

Not sure what my son will do next year. He will be in the same high school but on 9th grade campus connected which has an additional 1,000 + students Not sure how the lines will be. This is only our second year here!

Also not looking forward to the schedule change for my son. He is in a coma in the mornings and he is going from a 9:25 start time from middle school to having to be on the high school bus at 6:30 to start at 715. I know he won't be eating breakfast for sure! Ugh!

 

[DawnM]

Very interesting how things vary around the country and probably vary per kind of school (large vs small, private vs. public, etc...)

 

[kidshop]

I was surprised to hear so many high school students carried lunch boxes, too. Just like reusable grocery totes, reusable lunch boxes can really carry germs. I guess if one is very careful about regular cleaning, it's not such a big deal.

I'm no germophobe, but reusable lunch boxes are not especially germy. They are easily wiped out with a Lysol wipe, and as pp pointed out, your food is in containers inside that are washed every use. The outside can become dirty and gross, yes. You can wipe down, Lysol or even throw some in the washing machine.

Reusable grocery bags can also be machine washed or lysoled. Not germy in the least! I think that's a myth by the plastic companies!

 

[gwynne]

No preference for plastic here. We still like paper bags and waxed paper. Easy and clean.