Epiphany!

[rainbowgardener]

So I was at a restaurant tonight and confronted with the typical dilemma: do I bring my leftovers home (usually a whole nother meal) in the big styrofoam box (styrofoam is terrible for the environment)? Or do I refuse the styrofoam and waste the food?

It finally occurred to me (years later than it could have) that I could bring my own re-usable container, just like I bring re-usable bags to the grocery.

Has anyone done that? Do restaurants care?

[webmaster]

That is a very good idea. It's already common for shoppers to bring their own bags. Would be great for restaurants to incentivize the practice. Certainly would add to their green cred.

I am going to do that next time I anticipate leftovers.

[applestar]

That's a great idea. I'm thinking those nestable/stackable (saves space when not being used) lunch boxes I often see and admire at H-mart and kitchen gadget stores/catalogs/websites.... Some of them are also microwave safe, if that feature is desirable.

But I agree with webmaster -- this could be such a marketing gimmick: To show/emphasize their "green" stance, for free or extra $ restaurants could pack the leftovers in their logo-printed microwaveable, dishwasher safe non-disposable container for the customers to bring back and re-use, just like shopping bags.

[!potatoes!]

many of our local restaurants are doing cardboard to-go boxes, which makes it marginally better. agreed, though, taking your own is a great idea.

[webmaster]

I was thinking in terms of how some supermarkets offer a nickel refund for every bag you bring to the store. A restaurant can refund a token amount or even offer to donate it to a charity.

[imafan26]

If there are a lot of leftovers like at the Chinese restaurants we do ask for containers but for a few pieces, I always carry zip loc bags in my 20# purse. I use them for everything like saving utensils from the fast food places, seeds or cuttings I might find and want to keep, and my half sandwich I did not finish, or a couple of pieces of chicken or noodles and other loose objects I need to corral like loose change that always ends up at the bottom of the purse.

[rainbowgardener]

In Cincinnati, a few restaurants had cardboard boxes, which could go in the compost pile when done with them. So far here in the south I have received nothing but styrofoam....

I am going to try this next time I go out.

[rainbowgardener]

I did it! We completed the work of refinishing the deck floor (yay!) and celebrated by going out to dinner at a local Italian restaurant. I brought one of the bags I take to the grocery store, with several clean, empty tupperwares in it. No one said anything or raised any eyebrows that I could tell, when I packed up another meal's worth of food into the tupperware.

Two less styrofoam boxes are out in the world now!

Here's why I am doing this: (polystyrene foam is the technical name for styrofoam)

• *The biggest environmental health concern associated with polystyrene is the danger associated with Styrene, the basic building block of polystyrene. Styrene is used extensively in the manufacture of plastics, rubber, and resins. About 90,000 workers, including those who make boats, tubs and showers, are potentially exposed to styrene. Acute health effects are generally irritation of the skin, eyes, and upper respiratory tract, and gastrointestinal effects. Chronic exposure affects the central nervous system showing symptoms such as depression, headache, fatigue, and weakness, and can cause minor effects on kidney function and blood. Styrene is classified as a possible human carcinogen by the EPA and by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).
  *A 1986 EPA report on solid waste named the polystyrene manufacturing process as the 5th largest creator of hazardous waste.· The National Bureau of Standards Center for Fire Research identified 57 chemical byproducts released during the combustion of polystyrene foam. The process of making polystyrene pollutes the air and creates large amounts of liquid and solid waste.
  *Toxic chemicals leach out of these products into the food that they contain (especially when heated in a microwave). These chemicals threaten human health and reproductive systems.
  *The use of hydrocarbons in polystyrene foam manufacture releases the hydrocarbons into the air at ground level; there, combined with nitrogen oxides in the presence of sunlight, they form tropospheric ozone -- a serious air pollutant at ground level.
  *By volume, the amount of space used up in landfills by all plastics is between 25 and 30 percent. -"Polystyrene Fact Sheet," Foundation for Advancements in Science and Education, Los Angeles, California.
  *Polystyrene foam is often dumped into the environment as litter. This material is notorious for breaking up into pieces that choke animals and clog their digestive systems.

https://www.earthresource.org/campaigns/ ... ofoam.html

[imafan26]

While the hydrocarbons are definitely a downside, the upside to this is in Honolulu most of the trash goes to H-Power plant to burn for electricity and only the ash from the plant goes to the landfill. Burning the toxic stuff is bad but the scrubbers help to remove some of that and it isn't any better than burning diesel for the generators.

But, as you said less for the landfill is better. We actually have had a problem with the landfill. They have legislated to keep the landfill open longer by allowing it to go up higher. No community wants a landfill in their backyard and because we are an island and most of it sits on an acquifer there aren't too many places that are suitable for it. Our other alternative would be to ship it off island or do what Japan did and make an island out of the garbage.