Posted by Cathy Bouchard in nutrition, products on March 16, 2007 at 6:52 am
We sure do love our take out. Give us anything, as long as we can have it to go! At one time, the only option for your latte or bowl of soup was a Styrofoam container, plastic or waxed paper at best. Styrofoam is made from crude oil, a non-renewable resource and it doesn't ever break down. It is also loaded with a slew of toxic substances that are absorbed into warm food and in turn, your body. Times have certainly changed but there is still a whole heck of a lot of it out there, in use and in landfills. Other options are out there like bagasse (a form of sugar cane), potato and corn-based products that are non-toxic and 100% biodegradable.
Many organizations in Toronto are working to change the face of takeout and making the public aware of the importance of choosing places that offer takeout in non-toxic containers. NaturoPack is a group that wants to get the word out to go green, acting as a sort of middleman between city council and businesses who, working alone, may be viewed as agenda pushers. Their campaign is to ban Styrofoam in the city and pass legislation for citywide use of environmentally friendly containers. Portland does it, and many Toronto activists believe that we should be next.
Right now, there are a few suppliers of eco-friendly products - Green Shift and Bhumi Products as well as Grassroots Environmental Products - offering biodegradable kitchen supplies. The list is growing and the idea is that prices will soon lower as the number of restaurants using these products expands. With places like Green Shift, small businesses must order a large quantity in order to get a price break. This can be daunting for the small business owners expense-wise, and also few can find the room to store many huge boxes of napkins in their non-existent stock rooms. Places like Luna Café (181 Dovercourt Avenue), have added 25 cents onto each takeout coffee to help deal with the cost and to encourage people to bring their own cup or container. Other establishments, like Kensington's Urban Herbivore (64 Oxford Street), make it part of their operation as a clean living establishment and therefore the cost is part of already higher prices and not really noticed. Really, the cost should be about 10% more.
Green Shift’s site offers a list of restaurants and cafes where you can find their products. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the list was a good size. Hopefully more and more businesses will jump on the bandwagon. Whether Styrofoam will be ever banned entirely remains to be seen. In the meantime, you can always bring your own take out cups, containers and bags with you. Many Toronto eateries will accommodate, you often just have to ask.
Correction: Luna Cafe charges twenty-five cents on take-out containers for food only, but does not currently charge for take-out coffee cups. TasteTO regrets the error.
