Spoon-feeding Restaurants the Answers to the Global Waste Crisis
Spoon-feeding Restaurants the Answers to the Global Waste Crisis
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This post originally appeared on Medium.
Single-Use plastic cutlery collection in front of Green4Life in Cary, NC.
Individuals and organizations around the world are creating campaigns telling restaurants and delivery platforms people do not use, nor want, these take-out “extras.” Habits of Waste has cultivated a #cutoutcutlery campaign to convince ordering platforms like Uber Eats, Postmates, Grubhub, and Door Dash to install an “Opt-in” feature for their online orders. Additionally, Upstream Solutions is launching a #skipthestuff campaign to eliminate all unwanted and unnecessary single-use accessories restaurants provide customers. Closer to home, in the Triangle region of North Carolina, it was found that 87% of people surveyed did not use the cutlery provided with their to-go meal.
Collective individual action is excellent! I am a huge proponent that you as a single individual can make a massive difference in this world, especially when we work together. Just this past week I found a post on my local Buy-Nothing page of someone trying to pass on individually wrapped single-use cutlery, and I knew of an organization that needed some to pass out with their free meal distribution.
I quickly responded that I would happily rehome this individual’s take-out cutlery, however, I didn’t realize I would soon be organizing more than 10,000 individually wrapped utensil packets to donate to local organizations in Cary, NC. I am ecstatic that 228 pounds of single-use take-out cutlery will now be used at least once before being sent to the landfill.
With this being said, restaurants we need you to start listening!
If one individual in Cary, NC was able to collect 228 pounds of unused single-use plastic cutlery in less than two-hours think about all the drawers, baskets, and bags full of unused take-out “extras” people are forced to hoard. Please use this story as a reminder and motivation to create an “Opt-in” policy for distributing cutlery, condiment packets, napkins, etc. If you don’t believe me here are a few of the repeated comments I heard this morning:
- “Restaurants could save so much money if they would stop handing these out.”
- “These are from restaurants that I even requested no utensils.”
- “I have been collecting these for years hoping to find something to do with them.”
- “We need to share this with restaurants to show them how much waste they are potentially sending to the landfill.”
Restaurants this is your call to action — join the movement to #cutoutcutlery and #skipthestuff! North Carolina community members if you are interested in working together to contact local businesses, national food ordering platforms, and continue to find ways to solve the global waste crisis please visit Toward Zero Waste and connect with your local group.
About the Author:
Kaley,
I loved your article! This is exactly what the Plastic Reduction Task Force of Asheville GreenWorks is trying to do – convince restaurants to not include disposable cutlery and packets unless requested and educate consumers about their power to reduce waste by declining unnecessary disposables.
I see that you are a graduate student at Lenoir-Rhyne. Do you happen to attend the Asheville campus?
Jane, I love Greenworks Plastic Reduction Task Force! I interned with Greenworks in the summer of 2018 and am an Asheville native. I do attend Lenoir-Rhyne’s The Graduate School in Asheville getting my Masters of Sustainability Studies, though I am currently remote. I would be happy to talk with you about ways Toward Zero Waste, Asheville Greenworks, and my role at the graduate school could be helpful in activating a policy campaign in Asheville around this with Upstream’s recently released toolkit! Feel free to email at kaley@towardzerowaste.org.