FOOD & DRINK
THE SUSTAINABLE FAST-FOOD RESTAURANT
With an increasing number of people striving to become more eco-friendly, Jeremy Bennett from Tork manufacturer Essity, looks at ways of making fast food restaurants more sustainable - in the kitchen, at the table and in the washroom.
The sustainability movement has gathered pace over recent years. The prominence of groups such as Extinction Rebellion coupled with widespread concerns about climate change, CO2 emissions and the overuse of plastic have prompted many people to strive to become more eco-friendly.
For most of us it is now second nature to recycle our household waste and replace our plastic shopping bags with reusable ones. It has also become important to many of us to reduce our use of disposable items. However, this has proved to be particularly difficult during the COVID-19 pandemic when equipment such as disposable gloves, aprons and masks have become important weapons in our defence against the virus.
The pandemic has also led to a greater reliance on fast food outlets and takeaway restaurants by members of the public. With lockdowns resulting in the closure of pubs and restaurants in many places, anyone seeking an away- from-home dining experience has been forced to head for a takeaway.
However, the use of disposable products tends to be particularly high in this sector where convenience is all- important. Takeaways tend to make extensive use of items such as throwaway cups, single-use cutlery and paper napkins when serving customers. In the kitchen, surface wiping is usually achieved with the aid of disposable cloths and wipers since these can be used to sanitise units in a swift and convenient way.
However, this high consumption of disposable products does not sit well with the public in today’s more eco-friendly world. This became clear in a recent report by restaurant review site Yelp which claimed to have noted a 100% increase in references to the term ‘eco-friendly’ on its website over a two-year period. Mentions of drinking straws had also risen by more than 1,000%.
According to Essity’s own research, 80% of diners believe it is important that restaurants behave in a sustainable way. Our study also revealed that 74% of consumers find single- use cutlery off-putting when ordering a food delivery, while 58% of diners said they routinely avoid taking single-use plastic items such as forks, spoons and straws.
And the advent of COVID-19 seems to have firmed up our views on the subject according to a recent poll by the Sustainable Restaurant Association. This revealed that concern for the environment among British diners had grown by nearly 40% since the start of the pandemic.
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So, what can be done to make the fast food industry more sustainable? Efforts can be made to encourage recycling and reusing food containers wherever possible and to deter people from wasting disposable items. If this is combined with smart dispensing concepts that limit consumption, it can lead to a much more sustainable fast food experience.
Fizzy drinks and milkshakes served in throwaway cups with a straw are commonly offered in fast food venues. Many outlets are attempting to phase out the use of straws by offering discounts as an incentive to do so. For example, the 4FINGERS takeaway in Singapore has introduced signage on its straw dispensers nudging people to avoid using them.
Other chains are moving away from disposable tableware altogether, again using customer incentives as a prompt. Just Salad in the US runs a reusable bowl programme where customers who buy a bowl for a dollar receive free toppings on each visit. So far the programme has been a success with around a quarter of all customers participating in the scheme.
“Just Salad in the US runs a
reusable bowl programme where customers who buy a bowl for a dollar receive free toppings on each visit.”
In cases where disposable containers are more practical, it is often possible to make them in a more sustainable way. Macrobiotic and vegan restaurant 2Y in Barcelona uses recycled trays and cutlery made from corn starch and serves its takeaways in recycled bags and boxes manufactured out of sugarcane pulp.
In London, fast food chain LEON has teamed up with recycling group Veolia to install a reverse vending machine at King’s Cross station. This encourages people to recycle their plastic bottles and aluminium cans, offering a voucher for 10% off at the nearest LEON restaurant as a reward for each bottle or can recycled.
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