Reusable school lunchboxes
Vicenza
In Vicenza, ten primary schools (making up about one quarter of the city’s classes in total) started the Zero Waste in Mensa project in 2013, which was promoted by the municipality to reduce the production of waste.
The project is presented to all school directors who can engage one or two of their school’s classes in a trial to replace single-use plastic plates (35 g of plastic per person per meal) by a reusable lunch box or container made of unbreakable, washable material and that contains dishes and cutlery provided free of charge by the municipality. Alternatively, children can use dishes and cutlery brought from home in an airtight container provided by their families.
Those who adhere to the experiment receive a discount of EUR 0.15 on the cost of each meal as a small incentive, making the practice even more attractive.
Nine out of the twenty-six schools that use the municipal canteen service participated in the experimental phase of the project, which involved a total of 34 classes, 734 pupils and 57 teachers. Out of 6,168 meals provided in the first phase, from 10 to 31 March, only 4% involved the provision of a replacement lunch box and dishes – 90% of these cases were due to pupils forgetting their lunchbox, and 10% due to insufficient cleaning.
The pupils generally showed great appreciation for the initiative and even appeared to enjoy their food more. Broken lunch boxes were replaced free of charge thanks to the collaboration with supplier Snips SRL which is a big advocate of the project. The production of waste has drastically reduced: the Rodari School alone has reduced its waste from 20 plastic bags a day to one bag of organic waste and one paper bag of waste a day.
