The Trash Free Lunch

I recently had a group of my son's classmates at our house for an afternoon play rehearsal. It was a half day of school so I took a few hours off from work to pick up the kids and bring them back to my house for a rehearsal. For convenience, I just had each child bring a lunch from home. One boy I noticed had some peanuts in his lunch. They were packed in a small glass jar with one of those rubber gasket/metal latch lids. I also noticed his sandwich was wrapped in waxed paper. I noticed these because they were a bit out of the ordinary. After he was finished eating, he put his banana peel and waxed paper back into his lunch box. THEN I finally got it--he was taking them home to his compost pile! Nothing from his lunch went into the trash can. This idea of a trash free lunch intrigued me! I had already stopped buying all the pre-packaged lunch items (Lean Cuisines for me and Lunchable for the kids) that were so common in last school year's lunch. This year it's been home-prepared lunches every day for me and many days for the boys. Though, I have to admit a few weeks went by when we were so busy the kids just ate school lunch every day (ugh!). Earlier this year I purchased a bunch of the plastic "take-alongs" containers in a variety of sizes for sandwiches, canned fruit etc . . . Eventually though, the lids get lost and we end up throwing most of them away at some point. Also, I have heard plastic isn't very healthy to eat from. Sooo . . . I am working on trying out "low to no trash lunches" for myself. I bought some small Pyrex glass bowls with lids that fit perfectly in the thermos lunch totes I got for Christmas. Once I test this idea on my own lunches, I can see how to adapt it to the kids'. When I packed this morning's lunch, here's how it worked: Triscuits-in the original bag, carrots-in the original bag, veggie dig-in the original container, a pear- well, in it's original peel! So, is it a "trash free lunch?" Maybe if I don't finish anything. It will likely have some trash--but it is not extra trash generated by putting a few of each item into little baggies, just the containers I bought them from the store in. I guess that counts! Doesn't it? Do you pack trash free lunches? How do yours look?