Review: ToWo’s New Program to Reduce Disposable Food Packaging Waste

US citizens generate a whole lot of waste – particularly food service ware waste. Annually US citizens throw away more than enough plastic forks, disposable spoons, cups, and bags to go around the equator 300 times.

A new program called ToWo is focused on driving restaurants and consumers to reduce that waste.

ToWo’s Mission:

ReFuse the unnecessary packaging. Do you genuinely need twenty white napkins with your tacos? Or do you seriously want that single-use cutlery if you are going to take your to go food home where you have steel reusable utensils? In most situations the answer is no and thus Takeoutwithout is pushing you to be a little stronger, to resist the check out men and women who are speedily putting unnecessary disposables inside your bag, and to ReFuse the unnecessary packaging.

ReTake your own personal reusables. Many individuals are getting into the habit of taking their own personal reusable bags to the market and grocers – Takeoutwithout asks why not bring your own non-disposable cutlery, storage containers, straws, mugs and other resusable food items any time you are getting a meal and beverage to go.

ReConsider your own behavior. To go meals are often oily and unhealthy and Takeoutwithout is also pushing you to ReConsider your own eating habits. They are driving people to adopt more healthy eating tactics, to make dinner at home more often, and to purchase food at your nearby farmer’s market (where the produce is a bit fresher and a great deal less packaged).

Current Stengths: The campaign is already very active on twitter (with a following of close to 1,000 people and regular postings multiple times per day) and Facebook (with in excess of seventeen-hundred fans).

Current Weaknesses: One of the central pieces of the platform seems to be a listing of participating dining establishments who are each giving rewards for customers to bring in their own containers and overall use much less plastic packaging (e.g., 25 cents off your coffee if you use your own ceramic mug). Unfortunately, this list is still under development on Towo’s web site, and has been for close to a year.

For the readership, I’d love for you to consider tactics you make use of to lessen your plastic food packaging foot print. Do you keep your own reusables in your handbag? Do you drink out of your own mug at your workplace? Do you operate a cafe that is using biodegradable cups or biodegradable bowls?