Being more eco-friendly is fast becoming a concern among most people as we begin to understand more about the effects we have on the environment. Running an environmentally friendly business can sometimes be difficult, especially if you’re providing food and beverages. When serving food to the public, you need to ensure the packaging meets food safety requirements and does the job well. So, if you’re looking to become a greener company, keep reading and discover how you can easily change your food packaging to really cut your carbon footprint.
Focus On Takeaway
When your customers eat in, it’s likely that they’re using reusable cutlery and plates. However, when they want to take away their food, they might be relying on plastic containers or polystyrene boxes. While these can do the job well, they aren’t very good for the environment due to their inability to be recycled. Instead, try switching up your takeaway food containers to biodegradable or compostable ones to really reduce waste. Non-recyclable takeaway containers are one of the biggest contributors to landfills, especially coffee cups, so making this change can have a massive impact.
Remove Plastic Where You Can
One small change that you could make with the takeaway packaging is to remove the film of plastic that shows what’s inside. You can find some packaging that has a recyclable part of this too, but it might need to be taken to separate recycling centers. This can make it end up in a landfill if people can’t remember or want to travel to a center, so it can be a good idea to get rid of plastic from our packaging when you can.
Switch Up Materials
You don’t have to rely on just plastic containers for your food packaging either. You can look at other sustainable materials like glass. Not only is it super durable, but it’s also reusable so customers could bring them back to you for you to clean and use again. Although recycling is good, it still requires energy which does have an effect on the environment. This is why reusing packaging can be best sometimes too.
Disposable But Eco-Friendly
If you have to use disposable packaging, make sure that you go for something that’s easily recycled or broken down. For example, you could make use of paper bags as they are brilliant for holding food and they’re easy to recycle. Similarly, if you have to use disposable cutlery, try to go for wooden over plastic. Wood is a natural material that will degrade on its own and it does so a lot faster than plastic too. Swapping out single-use, non-disposable cutlery for something that’s better for the environment will allow you to slash your carbon footprint easily with such a small change.
Encourage B.Y.O.
As well as changing up your food packaging, you could also encourage your customer to bring their own for takeaway products. Not only will this save you a little bit of cash, but it will reduce the amount of packaging you have to use and the energy that will be needed to recycle them. You could even offer an incentive scheme to try and persuade your customers to try and bring their own too.
Changing your food packaging doesn’t have to be difficult, making simple changes can sometimes have the biggest impact. Try switching up your plastic, single-use containers to something more easily recycled or reused. It will also appeal to your customers as they’re probably conscious of their own carbon footprint too. Don’t be afraid to make the change and see just how easy it is to become a more eco-friendly business.
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