When was the last time you left the house with a lunchbox? I don’t mean a lunchbox for the kids, I mean for you.

Last week? Last month? Last year?

lunchbox

If you can’t remember, you’re not alone – figures show 75% of Brits buy their lunch every working day instead of taking a packed lunch with them to work.

And the fact is, whether you work from home like me or in an office somewhere else, when you’re busy it’s easy to go out and grab a bite to eat without really thinking about it.

But when you do stop and think about it you realise just how much throwaway packaging comes with on-the-go food. A polystyrene box here, a plastic bag there – it all adds up.

Wriggle, which connects local cafes and eateries with customers through online deals on its website (think Deliveroo but with money off, and you have to go and get it), is on a mission to change all that and revolutionise the way we think about on-the-go food with its #byolunchbox campaign.

To put the scale of the issue in context, according to Wriggle if you’re one of those people who does buy their lunch every working day, you could save up to 270 pieces of single use plastic a year simply by switching to a reusable lunchbox.

They’re encouraging people to bring their own lunchboxes when picking up food they’ve ordered through Wriggle restaurants in Brighton and Bristol to help tackle the problem, and as a Brightonian myself (not sure if that’s an actual word?!) they’ve asked me to help bang the drum. So, what does the campaign involve?

Joining the lunchbox revolution with Wriggle

If you live in Brighton or Bristol all you have to do to join Wriggle’s #byolunchbox campaign is visit Wriggle’s website, where you can pick up an eco-friendly bamboo lunchbox for £5 which you can use again and again. Then when you order food through Wriggle, instead of collecting it from the restaurant in takeaway packaging, you take your lunchbox with you and the restaurant will fill it for you.

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If you haven’t heard of Wriggle before they operate in Brighton, Bristol and Cardiff and feature money-saving deals at local cafes and restaurants. The deals are limited and change daily, and when you log on you can see what’s available that day, when, and for how much.

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Once you’ve decided what you want to eat you pay for it through the website, and receive a code to show at the restaurant when you collect your order in the designated time frame.

I was surprised to find deals at cafes I often eat in for meals I pay full price for – which makes using Wriggle a no-brainer. For the purposes of the campaign I chose a ‘Saintly Salad Box’ from a café local to me, Hells Kitchen in Hove (£3.95 through Wriggle as opposed to £6.50 if I walked in off the street) and went armed with my bamboo lunchbox to collect it.

I’ll be honest, eating my salad (a pick and mix of six different vegan and vegetarian options, isn’t it colourful!) out of a proper lunchbox was far nicer than takeaway packaging, plus if you don’t eat it all in one sitting you can pop the lid back on and stick it in the fridge for later. I’ll definitely be using it again and helping the planet at the same time!

Do you buy lunch on-the-go when you’re working, or do you take a lunchbox from home? Have you used Wriggle before and what do you think of their campaign? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

We were gifted a Wriggle lunchbox and £10 credit to spend at Wriggle for the purposes of this post. To find out more about Wriggle’s #byolunchbox campaign click here.

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