Tips & TricksJanuary 31st, 2008

We’re green…

By Tina Schneider

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that is to say we’re naive about this whole environmental awareness, save the world, go ‘green’ thing. My daughter’s 4th grade class has been spending the last month becoming aware of the global effects of pollution on the environment as they get ready for ‘Focus the Nation’ day – today. Our family has been in the process of changing the way we get to school, how we pack lunches and what we set the table with.Of course we’ve used the web as a resource to find out things – lots of things that we didn’t know about. For example, the students have been told to replace plastic snack bags by using plastic containers – but that sure makes for a very large lunch box. We thought about wax paper bags – except we didn’t know if they were biodegradable and neither did the teachers.That is how our research began. We then looked into replacing plastic water bottles with those colorful water bottles that you can re-use. From what we could find out, they could be potentially toxic, too. Looks like we might have to go back to those old thermos bottles we used to use – the ones with the glass inside that always shattered and made funny noises in your lunch- remember those?Its pretty interesting stuff wondering what is better for the environment and balancing that with what is healthy or convenient for you. You can’t just assume that the popular method is the way to go.If you’d like to find out if wax paper bags are an alternative or what types of plastic are safe for your kids – click on the livebinder below: