Westport families are gearing up for the new school year.
Supply lists are checked off. Backpacks are dusted. First-day photos are planned.
Also ahead: an enormous plastic consumption surge. Single-use snack bags, water bottles, vinyl binders — the waste is about to begin.
Sustainable Westport is ready. The town’s non-profit environmental organization just released its UnPlastic Your Back-to-School Prep guide. It includes practical swaps for everything from classroom supplies to lunch
Students often lead the way.
For example, Staples High School rising senior Sienna Schwartz has turned plastic-free living into a personal project. She founded Speckless, a resource that helps people cut plastic out of their daily routines.
The other day, she gave Sustainable Westport a tour of her own lunchbox drawer and fridge. Watch the full video here.
Sienna’s favorite swaps include:
- Lunch containers: Black+Blum stainless steel boxes with a built-in fork and divider, and S’well salad containers that keep dressing and toppings separate from the greens underneath.
- Snack & sandwich storage: Stasher reusable silicone bags in place of zip-top bags for packing sandwiches and snacks. They’re dishwasher safe, and reusable all year.
- Produce wraps: Beeswax wraps instead of plastic wrap, or a Ziploc for something like half an avocado. A little warm water and dish soap after use, and it’s ready to reuse.
- Leftovers: Non-toxic Caraway pots and pans in the kitchen, so dinner leftovers like salmon salad are easy to pack for lunch the next day.
- Grocery habits: Reusable bags for grocery runs, a small swap her family makes every week.
Sienna cites the biggest opportunity for improvement: plastic water bottles. They’re the largest source of avoidable plastic waste among her peers — and an easy first swap for any student, with a reusable bottle.
A familiar sight at Westport playgrounds and athletic fields.
Sienna’s setup is a reminder that “unplastic-ing” a lunch routine doesn’t require buying everything new at once. Reusing what’s already in the kitchen drawer, and replacing single-use items as they wear out, can make a meaningful dent in a household’s plastic footprint over a school year.
Sienna Schwartz
Sienna’s water bottle callout aligns with work already underway across Westport. This spring, Sustainable Westport partnered with the Parks & Recreation Department to install 2 new water bottle filling stations, at Compo Beach and Winslow Park.
But that’s not all. The organization is fundraising to install more stations at locations including Old Mill Beach, PJ Romano and Wakeman Fields. and the Town Farm complex.
Residents can donate to help fund the next hydration station, and support the town’s push toward a plastic-free water supply.
New hydration station at Winslow Park.
Sustainable Westport hopes Sienna’s routine inspires other families to look at back-to-school prep with fresh eyes. To read the full guide, and see specific product recommendations for lunch and classroom supplies, click here.
Sienna will share more back-to-school tips and recommendations throughout the month. Follow @sustainablewestport on Instagram to catch her videos.
(“06880” regularly reports on the environment, our schools — and, like today, their intersection. If you enjoy stories like this, please click here to support our work. Thank you!)
