Beyond Plastics Releases Free Guide to Help Restaurants Reduce Use of Plastics
July 25, 2022 | FSR
After years of pandemic-driven take-out orders, many consumers whose drawers are overflowing with plastic straws, disposable plastic cutlery, and single-use plastic packets of ketchup, soy sauce, and mustard are clamoring for less plastic with their food. Fortunately, a new guide called “Hold The Plastic, Please - A Restaurant’s Guide To Reducing Plastic” released today from Beyond Plastics offers restaurants detailed, practical, and inspiring advice for how to reduce the use of plastic in their operations and how to effectively convey those changes to customers, reporters, and the general public.
The free guide offers practical advice, tools, resources (including funding resources), and case studies, and is available at https://www.beyondplastics.org/restaurant-guide.
“Industry research has found that the use of plastic makes consumers feel guilty, frustrated, and annoyed – precisely the opposite of what restaurant owners want their customers to experience. The majority of people surveyed also shared that they feel restaurants must do more to address the plastics problem directly,” says Megan Wolff, Ph.D., MPH, lead author of the guide and Beyond Plastics Policy Director.
“Restaurants, in particular, have a big role to play in addressing our plastic pollution crisis. We want to help restaurant owners and managers take the first step towards becoming part of the solution,” says Judith Enck, Beyond Plastics President and former United States Environmental Protection Agency Regional Administrator. “Absent business changes, it is also important for governments to adopt new policies that reduce the use of plastics and propel a shift to reusable and refillable food packaging. Many of those steps, such as not automatically providing a mountain of condiments and napkins and plastic straws with every take-out order, will also save businesses money,” says Enck.
