No More Plastic Silverware for Takeout
Nothing is more indulgent than picking up the phone, calling in and having dinner delivered right to your door. When I first moved to New York it was actually one of the things I loved most about the city. I had an overwhelming stack of delivery menus from fine cuisine in every nationality to McDonald’s. Everyone will deliver in NYC.
Recently, though, I’ve been feeling really down on take out and delivery. First and foremost I don’t want the plastic bag, but then when I look inside there’s…plastic, plastic, and more plastic. Often things I really don’t need, like 5 sets of plastic silverware individually wrapped (in more plastic).
I’ve been wondering, why does delivery come with silverware anyway? Chances are that everyone taking the food home already has silverware. Have we become so lazy that we can’t even be bothered to wash a fork? Or have we just forgotten that things like plastic forks cost money and resources to produce?
Those 5 sets of plastic silverware, piles of napkins, chopsticks, etc. may be cheap, but they aren’t free. It seems to me that restaurants could actually SAVE MONEY and be more green by simply asking a few questions like… “Do you need silverware with that? If so, how many?” In fact, feel free to assume I DON’T need all that stuff and don’t include it. I won’t miss it. Others shouldn’t either. If you get your food to go and you need silverware that should be on your mind. The responsibility should be on the consumer to ASK for it.
Let’s do the world a favor and stop throwing all these extra accouterments around, and away.
I’m not the only one who’s hot on this topic. The Green Restaurant Association demands that their members have full-scale recycling programs in place and commit to not using polystyrene foam products (aka Styrofoam). In addition, they encourage restaurants to purchase bioplastic and biodegradable paper products from DineGreen. If you’d like to support a local green restaurant, check out their list of participants here.
Great post. Once people catch on to the idea that going green actually saves money, they’ll change. It’s an easy solution.
Imagine how nice takeout would be if all the places used the dishes that they scoop out to you by serving you your on your own dishes. There would be no waste then. Maybe it’s far-reaching as a goal, but if there was a savings and a
“personal touch” spin to it, I think it could be a hit.
Maybe we’ll lead by example one day when we open the MSLK Sandwich Shoppe…
By: Marc on May 18, 2009 at 7:10 am
You are so right on this. We need some easy lingo. Like please make that a “green to go” which would mean I need nothing but the food. Half green would mean I need condiments, etc. By the way, why are ketchup packs so small? Does anyone use less than five when they order fries? One large packet would be more efficient, garbage and time wise. Or is this just me?
By: Angie on May 18, 2009 at 7:34 am
Yeah unfortunately the plastic wear and such are probably manufactured so cheap that it costs them almost nothing to include it. Which is why we need equitable wages world wide. However, it is still a good selling point to the businesses. Some sort of campaign related to this would be great to see. Anyone heard of IOBY? It’s kind of for pitching environmental initiatives in the city. Also, Seamless Web has a green feature, but I’ve checked it before and still received as much plastic crap and condiments with my order.
By: keepleftnyc on May 20, 2009 at 11:13 am