Our Town And Community Need Your Help

Dear Restaurant Owner,

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We love our takeout food. Unfortunately, it is often packaged in Styrofoam or black plastic. All plastic containers contain toxic chemicals, including carcinogens, neurotoxicants, and hormone disruptors, which leach into our food and affect our health.

 

Sustainable Southbury, a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization, is asking for your partnership in a program to eliminate takeout containers made of black plastic or Styrofoam. This program will benefit our town and community.

 

The campaign focuses on removing Styrofoam and black plastic from the waste stream and promoting non-plastic food storage options. Styrofoam is not recyclable. Black plastic often can not be recycled. Most takeout containers end up as single-use trash in our landfills and incinerators.

 

A good replacement option is aluminum take-out containers, which can be recycled indefinitely into new containers. The best option, of course, is for customers to bring their own reusable takeout container. Either option results in -- No waste! No trash! Protects our health!

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As a restaurant owner, you are in a powerful position to help reduce our town’s trash and provide containers that will help safeguard your customers’ health. 

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Simple Actions

• Encourage customers to bring their own reusable takeout containers.

  • Offer discounts for customers who bring their own containers.

  • Create a loyalty program that rewards frequent users of reusable containers.

  • Educate your customers and employees through signage in your restaurant, and online information to help implement this change.

• Switch to aluminum takeout containers.

  • Aluminum is easily sorted at recycling centers, unlike Styrofoam and black plastic.

  • Aluminum is one of the most recyclable materials globally. It can be recycled repeatedly into new containers without loss of quality or purity. No waste. No trash.

  • Reduces exposure to harmful plastic chemicals, many of which are carcinogens, neurotoxicants, and hormone disruptors.

  • Costs less than most takeout containers.

 

What Are the Benefits For Your Business?

• You can reduce costs when customers bring their own takeout containers, and your staff’s workload decreases as customers fill their own containers.

• Aluminum containers cost less than black plastic containers.

• Improved customer goodwill because they see you as protecting their health, and they know the aluminum container will be recycled.

• You can advertise your business as supporting healthy and sustainable practices.

 

Advertising

Sustainable Southbury wants to encourage and reward community restaurants that participate in this program. Maybe you've already switched to aluminum or non-plastic options — please let us know. We'll promote restaurants that make these changes on our website, social media, in newspapers, and via our email list of over 1,000 people.​​​​​