With the upcoming Christmas holidays, I know that parents out there will be happy to have a hiatus from making school lunches. Being off on maternity leave this year from teaching has had the added bonus of no more morning rush to throw stuff into a bag that may or may not be edible by the time lunchtime rolls around.
You toss the food into their lunch bags, the kids toss it in the garbage at school. (yup, this is just a reality check for you parents). As well as icky, uneaten sandwiches, there is also a lot of waste packaging going into the trash. Some of these items, the shiny, foil-like Kool Aid Jammer and similar juice pouches, have been given a second life and recycled into beautiful, useful items.
Jackie White, a quilter extraordinaire from Manitowaning, has created a line of purses and belts that are both fun, functional, and planet-friendly. She is rescuing the empty packaging and reusing it to create trendy items.
These would make a very unique and "green" gift for someone on your Christmas list. Please contact her for prices and availability at jacwhite@amtelecom.net . She is always trying to collect more raw materials for her creations, so if you can save up your empty juice pouches, it will keep them out of the landfill and give them a new use ( and perhaps give you a discount if you order some items from her). Contact Jackie if you are able to save some that she can then take off your hands. Perhaps you could ask your nearest school to put out a collection box for these items to keep them out of our landfills.
AND NOW, for the best part.....I have available a Jammer Belt for one lucky reader to win. To enter, all you need to do is post a comment to this entry, and be sure and include an email address so I can contact the lucky winner. The winner will be announced after next Wednesday, December 10th, so be sure and check back then to see if you have won. Contest is open to Canadian residents only.
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Entering your contest!
ReplyDeleteGlad to see I am not the only one that takes mommy time to blog.
thegulyas6@amtelecom.net
hope you get lots of comments on those belts=)
ReplyDeleteVery cool website. I am a teacher at a local school and witness the amount of packaging that is tossed into the garbage, as well as food. A few of the classes have started saving the Jammer packages. We will be selling reusable water canteens at our school in the near future, and hope to limit the garbage from juice boxes.
ReplyDeletejennrow@hotmail.com
I love the belt! I had an announcement made at school to collect all the empty Kool-aid Jammers from kid's lunches and send them to the grade 5 classroom. The class wanted to know what I would be doing with them. (We also collected all the pizza boxes to cut up to use as Christmas decorations and props for the concert). I only have a few Kool-aid packages collected so if I had a sample I could display it and show the school what can be recycled, I would likely have more interest. I will also attend a meeting of our Green club at school and suggest they visit this website and perhaps even win a prize!
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteNice site. I love the idea of recycling these items. Is there other items that she uses to create things. I know, that once I saw a handbag made entirely of old grocery bags. If there are other items, please post them and maybe as a community we can recycle them.
love the bag and belt! I totally need to meet the creative excellent mind behind these! and I will keep my eyes open for more jammer packages!
ReplyDeletegreat belt
ReplyDeleteFantastic idea! I'm a first time mom and along with mommahood have switched to auto-green mode. Stumbled upon your blog today - t'is a good read! -tanz
ReplyDeleteTJoukanen@hotmail.com