Order take-out plastic waste every day to harm the earth, isn't it fragrant to recycle tableware?

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Plastic tableware is "degradable"

It's not as easy as you think.

Speaking of takeout, it is all too familiar to us.

For example, white-collar workers in the busy pace of work, takeout can not only save time, but also save costs to a certain extent. It only takes you two minutes to place an order, then continue to tap the keyboard, hold meetings, and wait for the takeout boy to deliver your food.

For those who like to stay at home and don't bother to go into the kitchen, lying down and waiting for takeout and shaking their hands after eating is simply not perfect.

However, have you ever thought that the plastic tableware used for takeout seems convenient and hygienic, but in fact it produces more environmental pollution than you can imagine?

Wen Zongguo, director of the Circular economy Industry Research Center at Tsinghua University, said that most of the plastic products used in takeout are polypropylene and polyethylene, which are difficult to degrade.

"A large amount of take-out garbage directly or indirectly increases pollution to the atmosphere, water and soil. For non-degradable plastic products, landfills will keep the garbage in the soil for a long time; if incinerated, the chlorine that may be contained in it will make the flue gas treatment more difficult and increase the probability of the formation of toxic and harmful substances. If the takeaway food residue is not treated in a timely manner, it will easily affect environmental hygiene and increase the pressure on the end of the waste disposal. "

Experts predict that the amount of plastic in the sea will exceed that of marine life by 2040.

While people enjoy the convenience of takeout, the cost of environmental protection is also increasing.

Some people say that there are biodegradable lunch boxes. Words such as "biodegradable" and "biomaterials" that we often see at present are easy to mislead people into thinking that these "biodegradable" plastic boxes can decompose quickly in nature.

In fact, even completely degradable plastics need to be degraded under certain conditions and do not "disappear" immediately. After being discarded, they also need to be collected and transported as garbage.

So in recent years, many individuals and groups have proposed the use of recycled tableware to reduce the impact of disposable plastic tableware on the environment.

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Recycled cutlery is good, who knows who uses it?

Recycled tableware, as its name implies, is recyclable tableware. Compared with disposable plastic cutlery, the advantages of recycled tableware are also obvious:

The main results are as follows: (1) it can be recycled and reused and is environmentally friendly. The recycling of lunch boxes fundamentally reduces the waste of takeout packaging.

(2) it has stronger applicability. There is no great restriction on the material and shape of the recycled lunch box, generally speaking, there are ceramics, metal, etc., which can hold all kinds of food.

(3) from a long-term point of view, it has cost advantage. In the short term, the cost of using recycled lunch boxes is bound to be higher than that of degradable environmentally friendly lunch boxes, but from the point of view of long-term use, based on its recyclability, the cost advantage will be gradually revealed.

Moreover, the exploration and practice of many foreign catering enterprises show that recycled tableware is feasible.

For example, DabbaDrop, London's first plastic-free takeout platform.

This is an online food ordering platform in London that specializes in Indian food. They are already using metal lunch boxes to pack food for distribution, and customers can recycle it after eating. In addition, stores also use compostable paper bags and cans to pack other foods, greatly reducing the production of plastic waste.

GreenTiffin, an online food ordering platform in the United States, has adopted a similar delivery strategy. As long as users subscribe to the platform's meal plan, the platform will put the food in a reusable Tiffin lunch box and distribute the meal in a more environmentally friendly way.

For example, users can choose to pay a fixed delivery fee of $3 and have couriers use electric bicycles to deliver meals to themselves.

In addition to ordering platforms, there are also companies in the United States that specialize in recycled cutlery services, such as App--GreenToGo, which offers a reusable takeout lunch box service-GreenToGo boxes. It is made of very thick No. 5 plastic (polypropylene) and does not contain bisphenol An and can withstand thousands of times of washing in high-temperature commercial dishwashers.

When these boxes can no longer be used for food matching, they will be recycled by the municipal government; when they are damaged, they will be reused to make display signs and put into use in App partner restaurants.

In China, some catering enterprises have also begun to try and change.

A pure takeout restaurant in Beijing called "different mouth good Food" will not provide disposable plastic tableware at the time of distribution, but will use take-out paper bags plus non-disposable ceramic tableware. The paper bag contains chopsticks and steel spoons, and the word "sterilized" is printed on the paper bag. After the user has finished eating, the distributor will come to the door to recover all the tableware and realize the recycling of the tableware. (however, due to the impact of the epidemic, disposable tableware has been used temporarily.)

These cases show that recycled tableware can help reduce the consumption of disposable plastic lunch boxes and reduce the production of plastic waste to some extent.

Judging from the recent policies of various countries to restrict disposable plastics, the production of disposable plastics will be strictly restricted. In this way, the operation mode of recycled tableware in the takeout industry is more worthy of our discussion and consideration.

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Circular tableware in exploration

Challenges and problems also exist.

Although there are many attempts on recycled tableware, there are still many problems and challenges in order to achieve the universal use of recycled tableware in China. Price, quality and hygiene will be important factors for businesses and consumers to consider.

For example, the promotion of recycled tableware requires an efficient recycling system. Especially for the national takeout platform, under the premise of wide distribution coverage and large user base, increasing tableware recycling will have a direct impact on the cost, income and even the price of takeout.

In addition, the hygiene of tableware will continue to be put in the spotlight. If you want to establish a takeout cycle tableware model, you must do a good job in cleaning and disinfection strict control.

Generally speaking, the measures to deal with plastic tableware at the terminal can only be a temporary cure rather than a permanent cure. If you want to solve the problem at the source, reducing the use of disposable tableware is the fundamental solution.

This not only requires the relevant government departments to establish sound laws and regulations, strengthen the supervision of the takeaway food industry, reduce or even prohibit the use of disposable tableware. At the same time, enterprises are encouraged to make more useful attempts to give corresponding rewards and support to catering enterprises that use recycled tableware.

More importantly, each of us should establish an awareness of environmental protection. Focus on plastic pollution and start with the little things around you, such as choosing "no cutlery" when ordering takeout.