Here it goes number 3 of the Year of The Planet Series.
Say hello to the No SUP Takeaway Challenge!
Make your pledge!
Up until now, each challenge has been something you could largely solve by getting yourself a reusable vessel. You haven’t had to sacrifice much. Not really.
Nevertheless, maybe you’ve been more hardcore with ‘no reusable cup, no coffee’. Regardless, well done on now bagging two eco-friendly habits.
For us privileged folk, this challenge might involve a bit of sacrifice. Or at least some bigger changes around your food habits. But don’t freak out yet, let’s see what we can come up with…
As you’ve probably already figured, this month is all about takeout, which has exploded around the world in recent years, especially during the COVID. And that means an explosion of plastic takeaway containers, and cutlery.
Would you say you get takeout once a week? That’s the average. And that’s just dinners. How about lunches? Love the healthy salad choice, but does it come in a plastic tub? With plastic cutlery? In a plastic bag? Please god, there’s no plastic bag.
Carry me, cries the takeaway of any kind, within the parameter of it’s safe to do so. Not one for risking a curry spill down the leg of your jeans, but I have to say in Melbourne the paper bag does outride the plastic one. Not 100% of the time, so that’s when you make the more inconvenient choice, and carry it. It counts. You could always suggest an eco alternative too.
On that, how often do you buy a takeaway drink? Plastic straw combo?
Look, I’ll leave it there with the minor interrogation. Maybe you’re reading this thinking been there done that, next! Or maybe you do get the weekly takeaway, and feel this one will be a bit of a stretch.
Let us know how this one lands with you, in your side of town. Better yet, start your challenge off by looking into how you might get takeaway food in reusable containers, this would help! Our friends over a RePlated offer some cool solutions to this.
The 2 billion plastic takeaway containers are produced in Europe every year. 40 billion individual plastic utensils a year in the US alone.
Straws and cutlery aren’t recyclable. Too small, too contaminated. They slip right through the sorting machines and end up in landfill, and washed into the sea.
Of the whopping 8 million tonnes of plastic that ends up in our oceans each year – that’s a garbage truck every MINUTE, by the way – takeout orders account for around 300,000 of them.
If we don’t change things, there will be more plastic in the oceans than fish by 2050. It’s killing our marine life – there are 700 marine species in danger of extinction due to entanglement, investment and pollution from all that plastic.
And it’s not healthy for us, either. When the plastics are exposed to heat, they can leach chemicals. How hideous is this?
It needs to stop. It all needs to stop.
But it’s so ingrained into our lives! It’s great to be able to order a Thai banquet from my couch, ready to eat. It’s delicious! And all the lunch options…
This month’s challenge is going to take a bit more thought, and a few more changes.
You likely won’t get it perfect. That’s okay.
But we’re going to help you work out where you can cut back.
Ready?
It all starts with this pledge.