Packing lunch can be stylish and sustainable
What’s in your lunch bag? Not just your lunch — but the actual lunch bag?
It’s a question Vancouverite Scott Whitley pondered while dreaming about the ways to “make a dent” in the estimated 300 million tonnes of waste created by North Americans each year. He created rü, a line of lunch bags that are made using 90 per cent recycled materials.
We caught up with Whitley, the founder of the company, to learn more:
Q What is rü?
A Rü is a Vancouver-based company specializing in lunch bags for adults — although lots of kids use them too ... but bear with me because packing a lunch is hugely impactful and empowering.
I’ll explain by way of example: Alex is a twenty-something young professional. They buy lunch every day, which costs about $12. Their typical lunch is full of preservatives, trans fats, fillers, added sugars and empty calories. And it comes with two utensils, two sauce packets, a drink bottle and a container. All in a plastic bag.
Most days the standard serving size doesn’t match their hunger so they’ll throw some food out or pay another $5 for a snack later on. Our friend Alex is pretty typical. They will go through 2,610 single-use disposables, spend $3,132, and consume a huge amount of unhealthy calories each and every year. That’s the nature of the fast-food industry.
What if Alex packs lunch everyday? They won’t waste as much food. They’ll only spend around $4 daily. They won’t need to rely on single-use containers or utensils. They will eat a much healthier diet because they control what goes into their food. You can see why we’re so big on packing lunch.
Q Is there a story behind the name?
A Rü is short for reuse. The two guiding principles behind rü are: Less is more, and big change starts small.
Q Who is the target customer?
A Young professionals and students. These people have long days and care about their health and the planet’s health. Personal style is important to them so they want to walk into work with a stylish lunch bag.
Q Where are the bags designed/ made?
A Vancouver.
Q And how much do they cost?
A $45.
Q Where can people check them out?
A Online at rusupplyco.com. Or with one of our retail partners: Much+little, Polygon Art Gallery, Walrus Design, Mo’s General Store, Vegansupply or Larry’s Market are some of our Vancouver locations.
Q Any plans to expand the line?
A We have quite the product pipeline that includes new patterns and sizes for the lunch bags, as well as new offerings like totes that are coming in the fall.