snackTaxi - American Eco-friendly Small Business

At Our Green House, we seek out small USA-based businesses offering unique eco-friendly products to share with our customers. On our blog we're starting a series to feature these businesses. In keeping with our current Back-to-School theme, snackTaxi, created and owned by Erin Kelly-Dill is our first American Eco-friendly Small Business feature post.

Who: Erin Kelly-Dill

What: snackTaxi - food movers for a happy planet! Reusable, washable bags made of 100% cotton with nylon interiors. Use them as you would plastic ziplock bags for snacks and sandwiches.

When: Founded in 2003 when Erin's kids were entering school.

Where: Plainfield, Massachusetts - in a sun-filled room of her home that was formerly the family's dining room.

Why:  As she was packing those first lunches, the reality of all the plastic trash that her family would be generating over the years brought on feelings of guilt and frustration. There had to be a better way!

How: Combining her love of sewing, an eye for good design and an environmental conscience, Erin came up with a prototype initially intended simply for her own children's snacks and lunches. Shortly after that she had friends, local customers and then local shops requesting their own snackTaxis. Erin's business has built up to the point where she now employs a handful of talented, local seamstresses. She is committed to keeping the work fun and local, never outsourcing the labor.

Challenges: Fulfilling a dramatic uptick in orders after being featured on Disney's Family Fun magazine, CNN and Oprah. Copyright issues with the original product name: Happy Sacks. Finding time for yoga and jogging with her husband.

Rewards: Supporting the local economy. Knowing her product makes a difference to the environment. Doing something she truly enjoys.

On the trade-off between organic and affordability, Erin says, "Organic cotton is better for the environment, but I want to make something that people can afford." If snackTaxis were made of organic cotton, they would potentially be up to five times as expensive.

When I asked Erin where is the most unusual place snackTaxis have been photographed, she replied, "Probably Puerto Rico- a fan sent photos to our facebook. There’s also a funny youtube video - it’s a kid holding one and talking about ways to be green." As for the most unusual item she's heard about being kept in a snackTaxi, "the same fan keeps his passport in a snackTAXI, as well as his phone!"

At snackTaxi they receive lots of really great customer email and phone calls. A favorite of Erin's was the mom who had to order more taxis because her son opened them himself and thought they’d make great sleeping bags for his stuffed animals! She says, "I also once had to measure dog kibble into a sandwich-sack so the owner could figure out if they were big enough to pack food for doggie daycare! We also get lots of great email from folks who can’t believe how many plastic bags they’ve eliminated from their lives, and we’ve gotten some great notes about the lengths folks have gone to in order find lost snackTAXIs. A woman from Brooklyn said she’d thought one was gone forever, and then found it after the snow melted in the street on her block- still usable!"

I wrapped up my interview with Erin with one final question: What's your favorite way to take a break from business? Her response, "my lifelong guilty pleasure- fashion magazines!"

Thanks Erin for making time in your SUPER busy back-to-school season for this interview. We're so glad that you're out there making a difference!

snackTaxis are available in both snack & sandwich sizes in 7 different designs at ourgreenhouse.com

Alternatives to Plastic and Paper Packaging for School Snacks & Lunches

So, in our last post, I mentioned that this year I'm committed to removing the last of the plastic from my family's packed lunches and snacks. I wanted to share how I'm making this change.

We started by eliminating paper napkins years ago, swapping them for cloth ones. The comment I hear over and over from parents when they see the kids' cloth napkins is, "but that's so much extra laundry!" Honestly, this hasn't been the case for us. We use cloth napkins for every meal and snack. I simply toss them into the wash with the towels. When the kids reached pre-school age, this was the first piece of laundry they learned to fold. Cloth napkins are perfectly sized for easy folding by small hands. We are lucky enough to have been gifted most of our napkins, which last for years, but you can also purchase beautiful and fun organic cloth napkins or swing by thrift stores and tag sales to pick up some (often barely or never used) secondhand napkins on the cheap.

Next up was eliminating plastic utensils. Even though we've always washed and re-used these, it still bothered me that we were using them at all. Sending my regular utensils to school wasn't an idea I was fond of, as I envisioned them getting lost and  I enjoy having a matching set when we sit down at home for a meal. Enter the thrift store and tag sales once more. There are many mismatched pieces of flatware out there that are perfect for packed lunches and snacks since losing one (or more) doesn't make a difference to your own set. Another option for the younger set is bamboo utensils.

Now on to the actual food. I've never liked using plastic sandwich bags, so we've been using re-usable plastic containers for food. Not caring for this solution, I've debated old fashioned waxed paper but since most waxed paper is made using petroleum, that just doesn't seem healthy or eco-friendly to me. Aluminum foil was another option. Even though it's recyclable, the disintegration when it comes into contact it with salt, acidic foods and highly spiced foods - creating aluminum salt in the food - is less than desirable. Glass containers are frowned upon at schools, for obvious safety reasons. I've tried wrapping sandwiches simply in our cloth napkins, but they never stay as fresh as we'd like. Finally, I saw cloth sandwich wraps coming onto the market. What a clever idea! Again though, there was a drawback. Most of these are made using a vinyl lining, which aside from having petroleum, is also often loaded with heavy metals such as lead to prevent deterioration and phthalates to give the plastic flexibility.

Enter snackTaxis sandwich wraps. These sandwich sacks are made with cotton and polyurethane coated nylon. According to the most recent information from the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act's website (the CPSIA deals with the safety of items used by children), these materials have been found to be inherently free of lead of lead and phthalates, and therefore do not require testing. The snackTaxi nylon has been tested, however, and confirmed to be lead and phthalate free! Perfect! Even better, they come in basic colors and fun prints as well as different sizes, making eco-friendly lunches fun to bring to school.

Now, for older kids, say my teenager, lunchboxes seem to be too bulky to fit into a full backpack and/or locker. While willing to pack a lunch, usually her sandwiches got smashed when tossed into the backpack. In case you've never experienced this, a smashed pb&j sandwich is not very appealing. This is where stainless steel lunch containers become a perfect alternative to plastic. The multiple sizes of LunchBots provide options for salads, sandwiches and snacks for kids of all ages.

Finally, drinks. In my family we've always gone with plain water, but I know lots of kids bring juice or milk to school instead. Either way, a stainless steel water bottle is a great, plastic-free choice. While I mentioned in my previous post that I fill ours up with an inch or two of water and freeze it the night before, which has always worked perfectly for us, you may want to think twice before doing this. If you're using a Klean Kanteen, their one year warranty will be void if you put it in the freezer. You could always fill it with ice cubes instead.

Don't forget to enter to win one of three 18 oz stainless steel Klean Kanteens in our giveaway! You have until Friday August 20th @ 5pm EDT!