Did you know March 10th is National Pack Your Lunch Day? If ever there were an easier way to save money and reduce your carbon footprint at the same time, you’d be hard-pressed to find it. Spending dough on dining out every day hurts our wallets and tossing out one-and-done food packaging hurts our planet — but packing a lunch helps everybody.

Celebrate National Pack Your Lunch Day!

The more time you spend getting comfortable in the kitchen, the more vibrant and delicious dishes you will create and the more confident you will feel in taking on more meals at home. Reinventing leftovers into lunchtime creations can also reduce food waste and cause us to think more critically about the food we buy each week. (We’ve all opened our fridges and had “oh god, what’s the fuzzy substance in that jar?” moments.)

The way you pack your lunch can be a massive, environmentally friendly improvement on your old practices or it can end up not making much difference at all. If you cycle through tons of plastic baggies, paper bags, disposable napkins, and cutlery each week, there is lots of room for improvement. Here are some tips to upgrading your lunchbox to leave a more positive impact on the planet.

The Greenest Gear for Your Lunchtime Eats

Cans and Bottles

Step one to improving how you manage your Diet Coke habit is making sure each can ends up in the recycling bin. That goes for water bottles, too! But, it is also worth a critical look at just how much of these products you buy each month. Purchasing boxes of soda and giant packs of bottled water is still creating a demand to make new products that require recycling. There is a better way.

If you are an avid soda-drinker, try a kitchen device that creates your favorite carbonated beverages at home, like the Soda Stream. The bottles will last for long stretches without bringing new plastic or aluminum into your household.

If water is your jam, filter your own at home. Or consider investing in a giant jug for reverse osmosis water at the local health food store. Then use reusable bottles to pack your water for work. You can also lobby your workplace to invest in a water filtration system for all-day hydration.

Smoothies, homemade juices, and coffee and tea concoctions all carry well in reusable containers. At the end of the day, a little extra dish-washing makes it all worth it.

Plastic Baggies

Across the globe, one trillion single-use plastic bags are used every year. When it comes to plastic sandwich bags, specifically, 58 percent of people say they use them most of the time instead of other, eco-friendlier options. This amasses to the gigantic problem of plastic ending up in landfills and our natural environment. Zippable plastic bags can be washed and reused, yet they definitely do not last as long as other, hardier methods of food storage.

For sandwiches, brands such as LunchSkins, Wrap-N-Mat, and the Kinderville Silicone Sandwich Pouch offer containers that stand the test of time, are washable, and reduce waste. For snacks like chips, pretzels, and chopped veggies, there are zippered Itzy Ritzy bags, velcro-enclosed Snack Taxi bags, or the beautiful prints of Eco Ditty baggies.

Paper Bags and Other Disposable Containers

To hold all your snackables, finding the perfect, no-fuss container is key. For those who enjoy variety in their lunchtime meals, bento boxes are a good bet. These structures provide separate compartments for main dishes, sides, snacks, dips, and even soups and sauces. Some quality bento box brands include Lunchbots, a stainless steel collection of large and small containers; Bentology (formerly Laptop Lunches); plastic containers that fit nicely into a larger box; or the Leaflet Tight lunchbox for snack-sized eats.

Be sure to bring along your own cutlery (and even glass or stainless steel straws!) to cut way down on the amount of plastic waste tossed out every day. You can also tuck cloth napkins inside lunchboxes and throw them in the laundry when you get home. Tiny, lidded containers can hold your favorite dips or dressings. Green up your lunchtime eats for this National Pack Your Lunch Day and beyond!

Katie Medlock is a writer, mental health counselor, and educator on a quest to make the world a better place. Her writing has appeared on Headspace, Inhabitat, Care2, Ravishly, and Chic Vegan. On her days off, you will find her cooking, catching up on nerdy podcasts, blogging at The Offbeat Herbivore (https://offbeatherbivore.com), or lounging with her partner and rescue dachshund.

Will you bring your lunch to work this National Pack Your Lunch Day? Let us know below and share your favorite packed lunch idea on Facebook and Twitter.