“I Take No More”
May 25th, 2009 by Jervey
From Brooklyn Green Team:
Brooklyn Green Team
& GreenEdge Collaborative NYC
Present
No Take-Out Challenge!*3 months. 3 meals a day.
Do it for your wallet! Do it for the planet!
PACKAGING STATISTICS: What are we doing?Almost 1/3 of the waste generated in the US is from packaging! Plastic takes 1,000 years to decompose (and really it just keeps getting smaller and smaller).
The US population tosses out enough paper and plastic cups, forks and spoons every year to circle the equator 300 times. Read that again.
Paper comes from trees. Plastic comes from oil. To obtain either one, worldwide forests are being contaminated and destroyed.
(source: treehugger.com)
RESOURCES: Can I?
This great article from Greenbiz suggests ways your company can begin to use eco-friendlier take-out packaging.
This article from Planet Green proposes a bunch of ways to reduce plastic, including take-out, in your kitchen.
This cute video with a nifty take on plastic was done by eco-to-go.org.This site is also an excellent resource for statistics describing take-out containers on the environment.
This article from Treehugger.com gives helpful tips on what to do with the glut of take-out containers piling up in your cabinets. It also describes an initiative by the New York based group, The Eco-Agents, in which customers can request to use their own take-out containers from Restaurants.
This article from The Daily Green lists the ten most (and least) green containers. It contains the pluses and minuses on take-out containers from Styrofoam (Least Green) to Cardboard Boxes (Not As Green As You Might Think) to Edible/Inedible Containers Made From Food (Cha-Ching!).
This article from Diamondback Online describes an initiative at the University of Maryland to reduce take-out container uses and discusses the difficulties and successes they had in attaining their goals.
SOLUTIONS: Sure You Can!
Breakfast at Home. Pack Your Lunch. Stay at the Restaurant.Visit our website for a list of restaurants that use eco-friendly take-out packaging.
If you must take something to go, get a sandwich or burrito wrapped only in foil (and reuse it) and put in your own bag or tote.
Check our blog for suggestions on restaurants that use eco-friendly packaging.
email brooklyngreen@gmail.com and write “I Take No More!” (Include first & last name and zip)