Food on the go

Even some of the most organised people sometimes need to eat on the go. There are some easy ways to ‘grab and go’ that have minimum impact on the environment, here are our top tips: 

Carry the essentials: reusable drinks containers, straws and cutlery are easy and cheap to source. 

Chose unpackaged fruit: it’s tempting to head straight for the ‘to go’ section of the shop but delving a little further into the store and hitting the fresh fruit section where you’ll find the same fruit but without the packaging and often for a better price. 

Head to ‘refill stations’ for fizzy drinks: most fast-food outlets sell fizzy drinks in cardboard cups (or even better allow you to use your own) a great alternative to buying a plastic bottle. 

Eat in: where time allows, eating in a restaurant / café will save on take away packaging. 

Use local and independent bakeries and deli’s: food is more likely to be made on site and come in paper packaging rather than plastic. 

Chose brands that look to reduce their environmental impact

Look at the packaging: if there are no other options, look at any pre-packaged items and make sure the packaging is recyclable.

Snacks

Many snacks consumed “on the go” come individually wrapped in plastic, from portions of fruit, to bags of sweets, chocolate or crisps. In an ideal world, we would always plan ahead and have plastic free snacks ready to take with us, however, we know that sometimes it is unavoidable (especially when hungry tummies are calling).

If you can plan ahead then buy bigger bags or packets to pop into tubs or containers at home. Instead of buying individually wrapped bags of sweets, buy a sharing bag and pop them into boxes to be shared out throughout the week or instead of individual melon portions, buy a whole melon to cut up and put into boxes. This will also save you money, as the individual packs are often more expensive.

If you are time short and do buy snacks on the go, look for products with no or limited plastic packaging, we love that Smarties are now packaged in 100% recyclable paper for example so perhaps opt for these instead of a plastic wrapped chocolate fix.