As the effects our habits have on the environment become more and more obvious, more and more people are becoming interested in saving the planet. Most of the environmental practices that will help the Earth are small changes that we make in our lifestyles, such as using non-toxic chemicals for cleaning your shop and installing compact fluorescent lightbulbs in incandescent fixtures. Many companies are taking measures to be more earth conscious. For example, they take great care in properly disposing of leftover paint and varathane from previous jobs, instead of dumping the contents down the drain where they can cause great harm. If you'd like to help the environment, one of the things you can do is switch to litterless lunches. Here are instructions on how to do that.

No Take-Out

Take out food, especially fast food, is terrible for the environment as well as terrible for your health because it's packaged in non-recyclable Styrofoam and waxed paper that ends up in landfills. So no matter how long your hours at work are or how badly you crave a bacon cheeseburger, take the time to make your lunch and bring it to work with you. You'll save on litter, you'll improve your health, and you'll save money too. That's a win win win situation.

Use Re-Useable Containers

You should pack your entire lunch in re-useable containers. That means no paper or plastic bags - use a re-usable cooler bag or tin lunch can. That means no bottled water or cans of coke. Instead, pour your drinks into a travel coffee mug or thermos. Don't wrap your sandwiches in plastic, put them in a container. Sauces should also be in small containers, not throwaway packets. Re-useable containers don't have to be expensive - you can get plastic ones in various sizes cheaply at any dollar store.

No Individual Packaging

The grocery store is full of pre-packaged goodies that are marketed to people who want to make packing their own lunch easier. But no matter how hard your kid begs for granola bars when she's on her way to dance class, give her home-chopped crackers and cheese in a container instead. This also goes for bite sized chocolate bars, small bags of chips, juice boxes, and microwave dinners that come in trays that will end up in the garbage. Buy the largest version of everything and parcel out the contents into re-useable containers.

Bring Your Own Dishes

You'd be amazed at how much paper and plastic you can keep out of a landfill by bringing your own dishes in your lunch and washing them at the end of the day. Take ceramic plates and metal utensils to the clinic instead of using the plastic utensils and paper dishes stocked in the lunch room. Instead of bringing paper napkins in your lunch, bring cloth ones. You can wash them with your clothes in the washer when you get home.