Back to School with Wrap-n-Mats
by Kara DiCamillo, Newport, Rhode Island 
on 09. 5.07
With all the kids returning to school over the past week, we found this great idea and wanted to share. Adding on to Jasmin’s “Back to School” ideas, these alternative baggies, called Wrap-n-Mats, are well worth the money. They are compact and fold up easily to fit in your child’s lunchbox. Simply place the sandwich or other snack foods in the center of the wrap and fold left to right, top to bottom and close the hook and loop fasteners. Added bonus: they are reusable and machine washable as well. Not to mention they are a great education tool for your child and their friends! $4.99-$6.50 each. Via ::iVillage ::Wrap-n-Mat
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Their own website says that some of them are lined with PVC, the one plastic that everyone can agree to hate.
How timely, I have one of these on my desk right now as I eat my sandwich. I can recommend from experience that for each person that will be regularly using them, you need to buy at least 2 and I'm leaning towards more. There is always some reason that you can't get around to washing them every single night (gotta run to the Sierra Club board meeting; PTA meeting; rec practice night for the kids). So then you are left with dried-on jelly the next morning, and if you wash it in the sink the cloth backing is all wet... and you end up using a plastic baggie. I think its hardly "conspicuous consumption" if you buy more than one of these, since you are preventing yourself from using thousands of baggies.
The plastic lining in the mats is not earth friendly though and off gases. You can remove it though and recycle it so it doesn't effect your food.
Anyone how the PEVA material compares to the PVC material in terms of off-gasing and so on?
This is an awfully specialized item. Why not just wrap your sandwich in your napkin or bandana?
I don't use plastic baggies or plastic wrap myself so I'm not their target audience. I tend to put my food into resusable polypropylene (Chinese takeout) containers and get many, many uses out of them. The larger sized ones hold sandwiches very well, as do many other varieties of reusable plastic container. Unfortunately I have never lived in a town that recycled polypropylene so I can't say my option any bettter than this as far as that goes on that front but I can use mine to bring in a sandwich one day and soup the next!