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Everyday swaps

Stainless steel lunchbox instead of cling film and zip bags

A steel lunchbox and bottle replace a daily set of wrap, bags and cutlery for a school child or worker for years.

Swap out
Cling film, zip bags and single-serve snack packs
Swap in
Stainless steel or glass lunchbox and bulk snacks
Impact
4 / 5
Cost
2 / 3
Effort
2 / 3
Grams of plastic avoided per person per year
2000
Break-even
A A$40 box pays back within a term against wraps, bags and multipacks
Watch out for
Heavy and not microwaveable; a PP box you already own is better than buying new steel.

Pack lunches in a stainless steel or glass box with compartments, add a steel bottle and cutlery from home, and skip individually wrapped snacks.

A daily packed lunch in cling film, a zip bag and a snack packet is roughly 10 g of plastic; 200 school or work days is about 2 kg a year. A reusable box only pays off after many uses, and eliminating and reusing sit at the top of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's upstream-innovation hierarchy.

The catch: steel boxes are heavy and pricey and cannot go in the microwave; a durable PP box you already own is a fine substitute.

Page updated 24 September 2026. How we check sources