Many schools are now eco-friendly and either encourage or require students bring a littlerless lunch. If you aren’t familiar with what a litterless lunch is, it’s a lunch that is waste-free and doesn’t require the students to throw away any packaging or leftovers. It also means that if there are leftovers, they come back home at the end of the day.

Being a first-time school parent, I’ve been stressing about literless lunch. I’ve been worrying about how to deal with foods that my daughter needs that come packaged, what containers she needs for a litterless lunchbox, and, of course, how to prevent foods that I pack leaking all over her backpack.

Here are my litterless lunch must-haves:

1. Colibri Large Snack Bag in Rainbow Chevron
2. Keep Leaf Robots Lunch Bag
3. S’Well Stainless Steel Water Bottle
4. Skip Hop Owl Insulated Food Jar
5. Goodbyn Hero
6. Colibri Large Snack Bag in Owls

First things first, the most important thing for a literless lunch is choosing containers that your child can open and close independently. Lunch time is always busy, and kids don’t need to waste the short amount of time they have to eat lunch fussing to open their container. Having your kids practice opening and closing their own containers at home is key, especially for little ones going to school for the first time!

So what containers should you buy? Well.ca’s got you covered with a variety of litterless lunch-friendly containers of all sizes  including plastic and stainless steel containers, insulated food jars, and more. And don’t forget to add some reusable snack bags (like these fun ones from Canadian brand Colibri) to your litterless lunch list! They’re great eco-friendly alternatives plastic bags, plastic wrap and foil.

Tip: Insulated food jars are great for hot foods like pizza, French toast, or noodles. Before you put the food in, fill the food jar with boiling water. Let it sit for a few minutes, dump the water out and dry the inside. Then fill your food jar with your food. This trick helps keep food hot (rather than just warm) until lunch time!

Litterless lunches aren’t just about food and snacks! Your little one will also need a water bottle. You can opt for plastic or stainless steel, depending on what you prefer. I like to throw in a few ice cubes in the water bottle before filling it to make sure the water will stay very cold all day. If you have smoothie drinkers, a water bottle with a straw or wide opening is the best choice.

Bon appetite!