Eating Out in Ashland

User: candle.lite@yahoo.com

Vendor: Drive Green - Green Energy Consumers Alliance

Action: 3673 - Reduce the Use of Plastics

I decided to recognize Plastic-Free July by bringing my own containers for leftovers to Ashland restaurants. That way I am not stuck with the restaurant’s plastic containers (if they are black bottomed they cannot be recycled in Massachusetts) or the brown cardboard boxes (they invariably have a plastic film on them to prevent liquid from leaking through which makes them non-recyclable and complicates their eligibility for composting). And I definitely don’t want to take home the ubiquitous white styrofoam clamshells made of petroleum, that takes hundreds of years to decompose, and can leach chemicals into the environment when thrown into the trash.

The wait staff have all been gracious and helpful. And no other diners stared at me. I’ll bet if more folks started doing this, restaurant owners would be happy to save money on containers and it would feel natural and safer for customers to reuse their own containers.