Green Food Storage Ideas: Convenient Options to Plastic Containers

As a busy mom of 4 kids, I often have leftovers following meals at our home.

My cabinets used to be filled with plastic bowls and other containers, ranging from Tupperware we received at our wedding more than 15 years ago, to creative re-uses of some plastic sandwich meat containers.

Greentainer is an eco-friendly alternative to plastic food storage containers

Yet using plastic containers is not the most eco-friendly option.  Fortunately, green food storage ideas abound!  Some of them are probably already lurking in your pantry.

For storing leftover food in the fridge, why not use glass containers?  My grandmother has an entire basement filled with Bell jars from her canning days.  But you don’t even have to purchase glass jars.  Simply wash leftover jars from jelly, pickles, or pasta sauce and their lids.  Glass is strong and durable and can be washed and reheated many times without warping or staining.

If you are looking for glass food storage options, shop for Pyrex or Bell containers, or browse The Container store and/or Amazon.com.

Wonderful glass containers as an alternative to plastic!

If glass containers seem too heavy, there are also metal options that can be used over and over, without petroleum-based plastic.  Check out Greentainer (pictured above) or browse Life Without Plastic for other metal food container ideas.

We’ve previously blogged about re-usable sandwich bags, called Lunch Skins, created by Three Green Moms.  The entrepreneurs used “food-safe German fabric,” to design and manufacture the bags here in the United States.  Some might say that they the lunch-bag version of canvas shopping bags!

You can find other cloth wraps and lunch bags in which to store items like chips, pretzels, sliced fruit and vegetables and even sandwiches.  Either make your own, or shop online at craft websites like Etsy.com.

If you are looking for convenient options to plastic containers for taking your lunch to school or work, have you considered a metal lunch box?  It doesn’t have to have The Hulk or Wonder Woman emblazoned on the front!  Re-usable metal lunch boxes are more environmentally friendly than an actual brown bag, and definitely more so than plastic containers.  I have found that the best place to score a metal container is on eBay.

As a final note, I just have to mention the recycling program launched by Ziploc baggies.  Even though plastic is not your most eco-friendly option for packing lunches or food storage, its nice to know that some manufacturers are keeping the environment in mind.