Environmental NGO Urges Restaurants to Reduce Use of Plastics
Ian McIntyre | July 29, 2022 | The Vibes
The global fight to reduce the use of plastics is coming to restaurants, as Beyond Plastics, a civil action movement to fight plastic pollution from the US state of Vermont, has released a guide for eateries to reduce their dependence on plasticware.
"Everything plastics, especially those which are difficult to recycle – it should be out of the door," said Megan Wolff, Beyond Plastics policy director and author of the guide.
Beyond Plastics is part of the global Break Free From Plastic movement which spans over 11,000 organisations worldwide.
Nearer to home, Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) is a local organisation that's part of the movement, and whose senior researcher Mageswari Sangaralingam shares the same sentiments and insights into curbing the reliance on plastics.
Especially since the pandemic has brought about a new life cycle for plastics, as the increase in working from home has caused many households to rely on plastic packaging for food.
In addition to that, the dependence on face masks to protect against Covid-19, as well as other forms of personal protective equipment, is another area where there has been an increase in the use of plastics.
Mageswari hopes eateries here would take heed of relying less on plastics and for consumers to reuse their food containers instead.
Beyond Plastics president Judith Enck shared what they are trying to do back in the US.
Plastic pollution is one of the worst kinds of environment degradation – marking the world's consumerist greed and the public disregard for what is discarded, until it comes back to haunt civilisation when oceans and marine life die as a result.
The new guide called 'Hold The Plastic, Please – A Restaurant’s Guide To Reducing Plastic', from Beyond Plastics offers restaurants a 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, journalists, and the public.
