5 minutes to tell you, non-plastic recyclable tableware can be so cool!

Disposable plastic tableware vs recyclable tableware

Don't ask! that's it!

Recently, a friend asked if we were going to abandon the use of plastic in the future, otherwise why would McDonald's not provide straws?

I smiled and said, "have you seen the plastic cup lid of McDonald's?"

The new version of the plastic restriction order clearly stipulates that by the end of 2020, the use of disposable non-degradable plastic straws will be banned in restaurants nationwide.

Disposable plastic tableware brings us, in addition to the naked eye visible "convenient" and "fast", behind is many people can not see the pollution.

The picture shows the advantages and disadvantages of disposable meals made of different materials.

According to the CCTV financial report, the country produced a total of 81.84 million tons of plastic products in 2019, including nearly 30000 tons of plastic straws, or about 46 billion straws, with an annual per capita use of more than 30. Industry experts say plastic straws last only a few minutes, but they can degrade for as long as 500 years.

Even a small straw can cause adverse effects on the environment for a hundred years under a huge base of use, not to mention countless disposable plastic lunch boxes.

In fact, in foreign countries, the exploration of recyclable tableware has already begun.

There is such a service in San Francisco in the United States, where Planted Table delivers takeout to customers' homes or offices in reusable bags (such as ice bags and insulation bags) and glass containers. Customers only need to rinse and dry the containers after eating, put them back in the bag and reclaim them for the next delivery.

Deliveroo, a British takeout service, also began promoting reusable stainless steel tableware to consumers last year, using discounts to encourage people to use it.

3 steps to let you know that there is no plastic recyclable tableware

Compared with foreign countries, the domestic exploration of recyclable tableware has just begun. In order to put recyclable tableware into practice, summing up the current cases, the editor believes that there are the following three points:

1. In order to make recyclable tableware a reality, a perfect recycling system is essential.

Take the Japanese fast food industry, for example, the utilization rate of disposable tableware is low, and most of them adopt the strategy of door-to-door recycling. Representative enterprises, such as Yuziwu, which is the only one, provides 70,000 servings of fast food every day.

Think about how much plastic waste would have to be produced if all disposable plastic tableware were used.

It is worth noting that Yuzi House not only achieves its own profits, but also uses recyclable tableware to avoid unnecessary burden on the environment.

Most of the Japanese takeout lunch boxes are recyclable ones, such as porcelain bowls or lacquer bowls. Users need to pay a deposit for recyclable tableware, and then put the lunch box at a fixed point after the meal, and then bring it back by the restaurant staff. For example, some takeout service platforms in the United States that we have introduced before also refer to similar recycling methods.

2. Cleaning and disinfection of recyclable tableware

In a social survey conducted by the School of Automotive and Traffic Engineering, Nanjing Forestry University, 77.22% of diners expressed support for the promotion of recyclable lunch boxes, but had doubts about the hygiene and safety of lunch box cleaning. It can be seen that enterprises want to use recyclable tableware, especially in the domestic complex environment for healthy operation, cleaning and disinfection is a big problem.

Foreign enterprise platforms that use recyclable tableware or provide recyclable tableware services are mostly self-built cleaning systems or cooperate with third-party cleaning service providers. In China, some scholars have proposed to establish a recycling and cleaning station model by region, that is, through the statistics of the number and location of takeout merchants in each region, through the appropriate location method, to establish a takeaway lunch box recycling and cleaning center in different regions.

Figure | from the article "Recycling Scheme Design of recyclable takeout lunch boxes"

3. Suitable recyclable tableware

The "appropriate" here refers to the recyclable tableware whose price, quality, hygiene, environmental protection and other factors are in line with the production and operation of enterprises. Different enterprises have different weights for these factors, and the measures taken may be different.

For example, dispatch goods in San Francisco chooses stainless steel tableware because it is sturdy, lightweight, reusable and free of toxic chemicals that affect food.

DeliverZero uses a recyclable lunch box made of polypropylene that is heat-resistant and can be washed by a dishwasher.

For example, Japanese catering enterprises mostly choose to use porcelain and lacquer ware as recyclable tableware; businesses such as take-out restaurants in Beijing are also trying to use porcelain as distribution tableware.

No more wait and see!

The model of recyclable tableware needs to be explored quickly.

From the practical experience of foreign countries, as well as the urgent situation of global environmental protection, the recyclable lunch box and its whole operating system have broad prospects and markets.

However, if we want to achieve the sustainability of recyclable tableware, we need the active support of the government, enterprises and consumers.

On the one hand, the government and enterprises need to constantly explore, and the government should introduce relevant policies to continuously promote the innovation and sustainable development of enterprises in recyclable tableware; on the other hand, strengthen public consumers' awareness of environmental protection, especially to do a good job in garbage classification education, so that consumers not only realize the seriousness of the current environmental problems, but also stimulate their initiative and enthusiasm to protect the environment.

After all, no one wants us, and our next generation, to struggle to survive in an environment where plastic pollution is ubiquitous.