Whether you’re feeling too tired or lazy to cook (hey, no judging here! We all have those days!) or your favourite Korean spicy chicken is just impossible to replicate at home, every now and then we all have the urge to click those convenient apps on our phone that deliver food right to our doorstep. While some waste warriors might insist on banning takeout for life, here, at focus magazine, we’ve always been about compromises, feeling good and taking small steps that will stick. So, here are a few tips to make your takeout more eco-friendly and minimise the waste afterwards.
Reuse containers
While many restaurants use paper or cardboard bags, there are some that prefer plastic containers. After all, it’s quite hard to deliver soup in a paper bag! If you lucked out, wash those containers and reuse them – you can take your lunches to work in them or keep leftover foods at home.
Use less containers
Can you survive having your burger and fries in one container, not two? Sure, you can! Can the restaurant squeeze two portions of onion rings in one container? Hell, yeah! When possible, always specify you would appreciate having less containers and don’t mind having several appetisers/portions put together.
Ask to remove napkins and cutlery from your order
Uber Eats, for example, won’t even add those to your order unless you specifically tick the box. If you’re ordering somewhere else, make sure you mention that you don’t need napkins or their plastic forks that will only end up in landfill after one use. It’s very easy to do both when ordering online or via the phone. However small, this will also help your local cafes and restaurants cut costs – and hey, supporting local and all that, right?
Customise your order
Speaking of costs. If there are some foods you don’t like – say, asparagus or smelly cheese – make sure you take them out when customising your order. Again, many apps have a list of ingredients for each meal you’re ordering, allowing you to manually delete or add some. If they don’t, just mention it in the Notes section. Instead of throwing away ingredients you won’t eat, you’ll help a local business save some money.
The same with any extras – do you really need the tiny soy or tomato sauce container? If you already have it at home, make sure to let the restaurant know you don’t need one.
Ask for no bag
You can so carry those couple of containers from your front door to the kitchen without the bag! Let’s be honest, we very rarely end up reusing those bags anyway, so instead of creating more waste, ask for a bag-free delivery.
BYOC
Have a habit of swinging by a local restaurant for a takeout on your way home every other night? You can simply dine in instead. Text your friends and have a nice evening out, catching up on each other’s lives. Feeling like a solo Netflix and Chill night? Bring your own containers and bag to pack your order, rather than requesting new ones from the restaurant every time.
Dispose of everything properly
It should go without saying but here we are: if there is plastic you won’t reuse – WASH and recycle it (anything that is not washed and has food leftovers in it WON’T be recycled and, moreover, can cause contamination, so the entire load of recycling will likely just end up in landfill), if there are compostable boxes and wrappers – compost them, if there is something you didn’t like or couldn’t finish – share it, don’t throw it away!
