Opinion, by Katie Berry & Erich Hetzel, The Royal Gazette

We all love take-out, but when a flimsy container gives way and spills the contents onto our laps, not so much. When the plastic container is burning hot, not so much.

When we see all the litter in our environment, not so much. And when we read about the negative health effects of single-use plastics, that is definitely a concern. One solution? A reusable foodware system.

A reusable foodware system can completely replace all disposable foodware items and you simply drop them off when you’re done – you don’t even need to wash them.

This is not a new concept, we just stopped doing it. Anyone over the age of 40 may remember returning glass drink bottles in exchange for money when they were younger. What we propose is something similar, just on a larger scale.

There is more than one way to achieve this.

A single restaurant can have its own contained reusable scheme whereby customers bring back the containers for the restaurant to wash. The restaurant can offset the costs of extra washing by the fact they don’t have to buy disposable containers. They may also get additional repeat business when their customers return the items.

In return, customers get high quality containers and therefore enjoy their food and drinks more. As an added bonus, both restaurant and customer can feel good about themselves for not stuffing yet more disposable containers in the trash.

Given Bermuda’s size and scale, an island-wide reusable foodware system would also work well, providing new business opportunities and therefore jobs.

Read more here: https://www.royalgazette.com/opinion-writer/opinion/article/20221122/theres-money-in-reusable-foodware/