The restaurant industry is filled with packaging options that are not good for the environment.
But there are a few roads a local restaurant can take to stay sustainable on the environmental, social and the bottom line for the company.
1. Use compostable to-go boxes
Compostable food containers are a good way to have circularity within a local restaurant. These items can do well in a local garden, but businesses can also collect these containers to compost them.
Customer education: Restaurants should also work with their customer base to encourage recycling, and recycling properly. This means that restaurants should make customers aware items sent to a recycler should be clean and dry, or it can interfere with recycling machinery. Compostable materials can’t be recycled. This needs to be communicated to consumers.
Paper, not plastic
Many restaurants use plastic bags to deliver takeout or delivery items, but these bags are not recyclable. Restaurants should consider alternatives to using plastic such as paper bags.
Paper is better: Paper bags can be reused and are recyclable by restaurants. Restaurant owners will contribute to sustainability and be able to build their brand as an eco-friendly label by taking these types of actions.
Avoid polystyrene foam
Polystyrene foam, which is also known as Styrofoam, is not recycled by most recycling programs. Restaurants should use alternatives such as plastic clamshell food containers instead.