To Go Boxes
Saturday I went to a wedding. The dinner was sit down style with a ton of food on each plate. I was shocked when the serves came around with to go boxes for the guests to take home the leftovers. This was a very fancy wedding! I have never seen such a thing. When I said something to the wait staff they said it reduces the amount of food that goes to waste. However, these were styrofoam boxes! Every restaurant I go to uses these stupid styrofoam boxes. I ask for foil instead but, think about how many of these boxes end up in the landfill. They aren't recyclable in my city. I get strange looks when I tell them I don't want a styrofoam box and prefer foil. At least the foil is recyclable!
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I have the exact same complaint about Styrofoam (and really any single use container). Foil is not a great option either since most foil is made by extracting the aluminum from open pit mining with toxic chemicals that get into the water system. (You can buy recycled foil, but most restaurants do not.) Some places use paper boxes and that seems preferable to Styrofoam. Another option for take out is to have containers that can be used over and over again. The best option, but takes a little bravery, is to bring your own and ask it to be filled.
I went to "Greening Up Your Bottom Line" in Burlington VT last week and met a representative from Foley Distributing who showed me all kinds of cool and ethically sourced green food service disposables made from potato starch, recycled paper, and other stuff. (http://www.foleydistributing.com/) What we want is out there, it's just up to us to let businesses know we won't stand for anything less.
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The Marlboro MBA in Managing for Sustainability:
Change the Climate of Business.