Restaurants and fast food outlets
Going out to socialise often ends up with a meal in a restaurant or buying food from a fast food outlet. This is often resulting in the consumption of excessive amounts of food (large portions), or food that is high in fat, salt and sugar. Hence, its negative impact on the health of our nation – increasing the risk for obesity, cardiovascular ill-health and other diet-related diseases.
But the Western world fast food culture is hurting more than our waist lines and arteries. With it’s grab-and-go, packaged food often accompanied by unnecessary condiments, fast food outlets are another one of the country’s sources of litter and landfill components.
Healthy eating out
Many resataurants are nowadays making efforts to include ’healthier’ options on their menus; also indicating these with specific symbols. Vegetarian and vegan options are often high in vegetables, pulses, nuts and grains. They are generally high in fibre and moderate to low in fat. However, with some thought one can still find healtheir options in the regular menu or one can ask for some minor changes in order to make the dish healthier.
For simple tips for healthy eating out click here.
Waste management
Litter characterisation studies have recognized take-away and fast food outlets as the primary identifiable source of foamed polystyrene (styrofoam) and plastic. This plastic, a staple of take-aways and fast food outlets, becomes a permanent fixture in our environment when littered: It easily travels through gutters and storm drains, eventually reaching the sea and polluting it for endless years. Typically, however, this waste is merely trashed to eventually end up in landfills.
Whilst take-aways and fast food companies are now trying to use more paper and cardboard containers and packaging (recyled or recyclable) and more eco-friendly plastic cups or utensils, they are still a drag on local communities’ waste diversion rates. Currently, a very small percentage of this waste is diverted from landfills (the vast majority of which is cardboard and aluminium cans), mainly because it is contaminated with food waste. This low diversion rate could be changed considering that some of the waste could be recycled as it is not heavily contaminated.
More mainstream restaurants have started composting programmes where they compost food scraps and offer this to local farmers or use in their own restaurant garden where available.
Sustainable practices when eating out
Next time you go to a restaurant or purchase food from a take-away or fast food outlet, remember to make more sustainable options. This can be done by:
- Opting for nutritious foods.
- Keeping serving sizes small. Buffets abound and food outlets offer ‘value meals’ providing more food for less cost. But remember super-sized portions means more calories and possibly more wastage.
- Opting for local seasonal food.
- Opting for organic options.
- Asking for wild rather than farmed fish.
- Opting for local wine and beverages served in recyclable glass bottles.
- Visiting restaurants which use washable table linen.
- Chosing take-away or fast food with no or minimal packaging.
- Asking for a straw or drinking from the bottle or can rather than using a disposable glass when buying drinks from take-aways.
- Refusing any offered plastic/paper bags to carry the food in. If the food is to be carried for a long distance, take your own calico or reusable basket.
