Lunchbox wars

[hurricane]

Since dd1 has gone into year 1 she has been coming back from school with her lunchbox full of bread crusts, apple cores and mostly empty but slightly leaking drinks cartons. When I asked her why she wasn't putting her rubbish in the bin she explained that the teachers make them bring it home so it won't make the classroom smell. I put a note in her homework book to ask the teacher to let her throw away her empty drinks containers as they were leaking and the teacher has said that they tell the children to empty any drink before putting the carton back in their lunch box so once again dd brought home a sticky carton, apple core etc.

My question is is it unreasonable to expect children to be allowed to throw rubbish away so that their poor mums and dads aren't faced with a load of stinky food and drink when they open thier lunch boxes? And if not what should I do now?

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No, our school doesn't let children throw away their rubbish, the whole point is so that parents see what is being left.

Cartons are discouraged, just about everyone takes in a re-usable bottle so no leaks.

This is standard procedure every school I know, we do the same at our playgroup.

YANBU. I would be furious if our school did this. I get so annoyed when dd doesn't throw out the rubbish in her lunch. A lunchbox full of sticky crumbs is hell to get properly clean!

Really...if the bins are emptied each night, how much stink could drink boxes and apple cores make in one afternoon?

Same here.

at myself. Schools in the US must have different procedure re: lunchbox rubbish.

That said, I would still find it highly annoying.

Same here to having to bring it all home that is! I ended up avoiding smelly food. I.e grapes not bananas or apples, wraps and not sarnies. Re-usuable drink and not cartons.

Is it really so much hassle? Use lunchboxes that wash easily, no problem! Better than parents thinking their little darlings have eaten a full lunch, not knowing it has all been thrown away. That's the reason most schools and nurseries do it, nothing to do with not wanting rubbish in their bins!

Hmmm, I find this bizarre. Why do I need to see dd1's stinky old apple core and empty drinks carton? I know my dcs eat well. Some parents must be very weird if they want to get this stuff back. If teachers have any concern about what or how much children are eating would it be too much to expect them to tell the parents?

I try to be as green as I can with lunchboxes never using cling film or foil and I do use reusuable drink bottles but they still sometimes leak.

Clearing out rubbish adds to parents' workload, ruins lunchboxes not to mention anything that comes into contact with them and is absolutely unnecessary.

If schools are concerned about smell perhaps the lunchtime supervisors or children themselves could take a binbag round the children at the end of lunch and collect rubbish. They could then have a recycling project!

BTW, I didn't mention that dds school doesn't offfer cooked lunches so parents ahve no choice but to make and clear up after the packed ones.

All schools do it. DS1's school will allow them to empty drinks/yoghurts and occasionally throw them away but the school I work in has no bins in the lunch hall. We could fill a small landfill site every day if we did.

I instruct ds1 to put all the rubbish into his little sandwich bag so the yoghurt mess is contained a bit.

I also like to see what he has eaten tbh

I have just cleaned my sons lunchbox out. A banana skin, an empty yogurt pot, a crust and a leaking apple juice carton is not nice to wash out and never gets properly clean. Its a material lunchbox, I tried the old fashioned hard ones but when he occasionally dropped it his lunch spread accross the playground.School policy is that they must take theor rubbish home to reduce the schools waste! I dont see the difference really whose bin it goes in it gets taken to the same disposal site. Not majorly concerned but it does slightly annoy me,agghhhhhhh!

Perhaps schools are of the opinion that they haven't got time to empty 200+ lunch boxes either. It would of course involve several different recycling bins and several staff members supervising it.

if you use a fabric lunchbox then put a plastic sandwich box in, that way your child can put all the rubbish in there, it contains all the mess and is easily washed. you also dont have to use foil or clingfilm then. it aint rocket science

DDs school has a recycling scheme whereby every class competes to produce as little non-recyclable waste as possible.

They are encouraged to bring their food either in reusable plastic containers or, if its something that needs to be wrapped, then wrapped in foil which can be recycled rather than cling film.

There is a also a bucket to put food waste in for the worm /compost bins.

Its done in a fun way but it does make the children (and parents) think about waste. You don't get hauled up in front of the Eco-Court for wrapping the sandwiches in cling-film and putting in a Frube

deffo train them to put all rubbish back in plastic sandwich box. Then it's all sealed and easily chucked out and washed. Drink bottles, I can highley recommend These bottles - they also do them in pink. No leaks, easy to use and it all comes apart to go in the diswasher.

adds to parent's workload....it's hardly onerous. i think it's expecting a little much to expect the teachers to monitor 30 kids and whether so-and-so isn't eating well at the moment, and to tell the parent about it. That really is for the parent to assess and that's why alot of parents don't mind getting the rubbish back.

if you get a good quality bottle that doesn't leak (or leaks as little as possible!) then all you need to do is empty the food out and wipe the lunchbox.

That's exactly what I had in mind Bettyspag. Since the school offers no choice but lunchboxes and since as pointed out earlier it all goes to the same landfill site anyway then I don't see why they shouldn't make it their and the children's responsibility to deal with the rubbish. I do use reusable plastic containers but clearing out the rubbish from it is still unpleasant and it still collects in the corners of the fabric lunchboxes - yuk. And so unnecessary if they just got the kids to separate the rubbish into recycling containers (e.g. for plastics, compost etc) which were then taken to the playground by monitors from each class. Obviously this would have to be accompanied by an awareness campaign to discourage parents from sending too much disposable stuff and therefore would be good for the planet too.

YOu want to try being the teacher who has to clean out the big plastic box that 33 children put their packed lunches each day before the school brought in a take your rubbish home policy. That was me for 8 years.

Actually Honoria, as a working parent with 2 kids with lunchboxes I do find it onerous. As when dd and I had to trail a leaking lunchbox all the way through her school and home (I had used a reusable drink bottle but she hadn't fastened it properly leading to a pool of water in her lunchbox which then leaked through the fabric) and when I have to wipe the yoghurt which has got smeared into the zip off. Esp. when it's so unnecessary. I personalyl find the idea of checking your child's remains really weird. Since you packed the lunchbox you know what they've eaten. If your child had some kind of problem you'd think you might recognize it through more obvious ways than poking through their detritus and yes, I do think a school (in loco parentis) should be able to identify children with eating problems and report this to parents.

In most schools, teachers do not sit at lunch with the children - unless they are on duty.

ds has a fabric lunchbox. I make sure it is the 'suitcase' type ones and unzip it all the way round, open the lid and lie it in the dishwasher - comes up lovely once a week!

DD has a similar one furball and I put it in the washing machine -comes out fine.

i put ds1's in the washer each week

At ds2's school they have to bring the rubbish home. This week dh forgot to empty the lunchbox and put the fresh stuff in , so ds2 went to school with the previous days rubbish Luckily there was an apple in it that he hadn't manage to eat the day before so that was all he had to eat.

He didn't want to tell the teacher as he didn't want a school dinner!