Waste-Free Lunch Challenge

The Waste-Free Lunch Challenge is designed as a resource for classroom educators to raise awareness around the issue of waste reduction.

The average student’s lunch generates approximately 30 kg of waste per school year and an elementary school generates 8,500 kg of waste per year. Reducing snack and lunch waste is one of the easiest ways to start reducing waste in the classroom. Including students, teachers, and parents in the challenge will help to create awareness and promotes a healthier environment.

Youth are becoming increasingly aware of waste management issues. To make the competition a true challenge, students should attempt to go waste-free for an entire week. You can challenge your students even more by encouraging them to continue their waste-free habits for the rest of the school year.

The goal of the challenge is to help schools decrease the amount of garbage they produce and to educate students, staff, and parents about waste reduction and the principles of the 3Rs – Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.

Download program materials:

• Waste-Free Lunch Challenge Program Details (pdf format)
• Letter to Parents (Word format)
• Record Sheet (Word format)
• Waste Reduction Fun Facts (Word format)