Get Refill Takeaways On the Menu in Your Community

What’s not to love about a mid-week takeaway, or a coffee to go. But does convenience have to be at the expense of the environment?

The ‘on-the-go sector’ has seen enormous growth in the UK since the 1990s (1) and a further spike as a result of lockdown, with a recent study showing that deliveries and takeaways made up over a third of restaurant & pub sales in July 2021 (2). Sadly though, takeaway containers and cups are often plastic or plastic lined and are nearly always single-use. That means the vast majority are destined for landfill, incineration of the environment.

Our 2021 Brand Audit found that the ‘Dirty Dozen’ (the top 12 most polluting brands) were predominantly food and beverage manufacturers. And, according to Rory Sullivan from The Independent (3), ‘almost half of the litter found in the world’s oceans is plastic made for takeaway food and drinks.’

So, what can we do? Our Plastic Free Communities and Business Champions have some insights.

Curry and Conversation, Weston Super Mare

Debbie and the Plastic Free Weston Super Mare (WSM) team started working with Naseem of Plastic Pollutions Awareness & Action Projects (PPAAP) and Moslek of UK Curry Connect (UKCC) after being introduced at one of their Curry & Conversation Workshops.

Naseem and Moslek host these community events to inform and empower businesses, groups and locals on single-use plastic reduction and the climate emergency. The aim is to equip individuals to lead change within their businesses and lives.

Debbie, Community Lead in WSM, saw how effective the workshops were, so set out to secure funding to support another six Curry and Conversation workshops across the UK, alongside Moslek and Naseem.

Watch Chutney’s in Weston Super Mares Story

Naked Takeaways, Plastic Free Mold

The team in Mold are working to ditch single use takeaway containers too. Their Naked Takeaways scheme promotes tiffin tins, and the local council supported the project by supplying the tins. This removed the initial financial burden from businesses and has been a game changer in driving engagement.

Six businesses in Mold, including a café and pizzeria, are involved in the year-long trial. The team estimate that 26,000 single-use plastic takeaway food containers and 5,200 single use cardboard pizza boxes will be eliminated as a result of the pilot project.

The scheme has taken off locally, with both businesses and customers feeling proud to be involved. Mold even received an international award – the Cittaslow Award – for best practice.

Keep Cups – Plastic Free Overton

Coffee cups. Britain alone gets through 2.5 billion a year, with an estimated 1 in 400 being recycled and the rest heading straight to landfill or in the environment (4). So, if our maths is correct, that’s 2.49 billion coffee cups without an end of life plan.

Swapping to compostable cups isn’t the answer either, as we don’t have the infrastructure in place to compost a meaningful proportion of them and they can’t be recycled in conventional facilities.

So, we need to reduce. And to reduce we need to reuse. Plastic Free Overton’s ‘Keep Cup’ is a reusable cup that businesses, from cafes to the greengrocer (who sells soup in them), are offering their customers.

Holly Foat from PF Overton tells us: ”Research shows over two-thirds of people have their own reusable coffee cup but only 1 in 6 say they remember to use them every time they buy a hot drink.” (5)

The pivotal point for the Overton Cup scheme was the installation of collection points around the village where the cups can be returned – which allow people to use them as if they were single use, and drop them off at a collection point without having to retrace their steps.

CauliBox, Business Champion in London

As well as community led initiatives, there are some awesome businesses initiatives out there too. CauliBox are one of our Plastic Free Business Champions, and their mission is to ‘make sustainability more convenient and accessible for everyone, aiming to save 15,000,000 single use takeaway containers every year.’

CauliBox is the first digitally-enabled reusable lunch box scheme in London. Their scheme makes it easy for customers to have their food-to-go from partnered restaurants or canteens without generating large volumes of waste. Customers have their lunch in a CauliBox and then drop the box off in one of the community ‘drop-off’ points.

Top Up Truck, Business Champion

The Top Up Truck in Hackney are also stylishly championing refill and reuse with their converted old milk float, by driving around London as a mobile refill store and allowing people to refill outside their front door.

Ella at Top Up Truck explains: “Residents book a slot, put in an order, and collect in their own containers alongside their neighbours. To date we have saved over 25000 pieces of plastic from being used. The aim is to make refill shopping more convenient to encourage wider uptake – as well as to bring about (or to revive) a more social or community-led way of shopping.’

What next?

Let’s keep takeaways on the menu AND reduce single use, throwaway plastic. It’s possible and here’s a huge shout out to all our Plastic Free Communities showing how it can be done and championing a new way forward.

Is there room to get a scheme like this started in your community? The first step is to join Plastic Free Communities here.

Are you a business already making reductions in single use plastic and promoting refill? Become a Business Champion here.

Not part of a community but want to make a difference? Sign our petition to urge the government to introduce an all-in Deposit Return Scheme for drinks containers of all sizes and materials

REFERENCES

1. Hirth et al., (2021) Unpacking food to go: Packaging and food waste of on the go provisioning practices in the UK. Geoforum, Volume 126 , November 2021, Pages 115-125
2. Katherine Price, The Caterer, July 2021
3. Rory Sullivan, the Independent, June 2021
4. Jamie Doward, the Guardian, April 2021
5. Darrell Moore, Circular, January 2021