Leave the juice box at home, Toronto eco-friendly school says
The list of things kids can’t bring to school just keeps getting longer. Slingshots and anything with nuts have long been out of the question, but Jackman Avenue Junior Public School in Toronto is cracking down on a new culprit — juice boxes.
Along with the typical forms that kids bring home in the first week of school, the eco-friendly school added a note this year emphasizing that kids strive for a “litterless lunch” and, in particular, one free of disposable juice boxes.
It may seem a bit extreme to parents who happily head out to Costco once every few months for the 60-drinkbox mega pack priced to move, but it follows a trend in schools towards better eco practices. In many lunchrooms, garbage cans are tough to find, giving parents the options of packing reusable containers or face a school bag loaded with soggy refuse.
For Jackman, the rules are part of a “recipe for a litterless lunch” that also suggests ditching paper and plastic bags, plastic wrap, foil, plastic cutlery and napkins.
“The average student lunch generates 66 lbs of waste per school year. That can add up to 20,000 lbs of waste per school,” the school says in a guide on its website.
Rather than juice boxes, it suggests BPA-free reusable water bottles. Instead of napkins, it recommends washcloth soaked in soapy water and kept in a waterproof container.
The school’s approach has earned it a platinum certification in the Toronto District School Board’s EcoSchools program, which aims to cut waste and energy use at schools. Jackman Avenue, located in a tony neighbourhood just off the Danforth in Toronto’s east end, also boasts a retrofitted green roof, the first school in the city to have one. It has also planted trees next to the building, and torn up asphalt to plant gardens, it says on its website.
According to the letter sent home to parents, part of the issue with the juice boxes was students improperly disposing of them, often throwing them in the garbage.
“They put them in the recycling but forget to remove the straw. Wrong. They put them in the recycling but (they’re) still half full. Wrong. They leave them on the floor in the lunchroom. Wrong,” the note read, according to the Toronto Star.
The school’s principal and the TDSB did not respond to a request for comment.
The hard line on packaging follows a general tightening of standards for children’s lunches in recent years, with some schools banning sugared drinks and other unhealthy snacks. With the trend sure to continue, at least the lines at Costco will be a bit shorter.