Ok, I’ll come clean. During lockdown I may have used food delivery services, well, once or twice. In fact the take-away food business sector is booming. However, while this is keeping restaurants in business it is also not doing great things for the environment with many restaurants opting to send dishes in single-use plastic tubs.
One US startup that is tackling this issue head on is Denver-based PlasticScore. In 2019 it began to offer a crowdsourced zero-waste rating for restaurants.
Consumers can see at a glance whether the restaurant uses styrofoam and plastic, or whether it has adopted more sustainable practices. Each time a person leaves a review PlasticScore promises to recover a takeout order’s worth of plastic waste from the environment. The company’s mission is to fund the recovery of plastic waste for every “waste review”, and use the data to help bring an end to trashy dining.
“People are looking for sustainable dine-in, takeout, and delivery options more than ever before, and solutions for restaurants to reduce waste already exist.” said Mladen Gajic, Co-founder and CEO, PlasticScore.
Now the company has teamed up with Oceanic Global, which provides resources for businesses to implement waste reduction solutions,
“The hospitality industry is one of the sectors hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, and while many want to support their local businesses in these challenging times, it is difficult to avoid the flood of single-use plastic utensils.” shares Cassia Patel, Program Director, Oceanic Global.
“PlasticScore provides a brilliant and accessible platform for anyone to review and give restaurants feedback on their plastic consumption. This helps celebrate taking action and provides an incentive for safe and sustainable practices in a way that empowers people to engage their favorite places.”
It is a cracking idea and a very timely one, and the partnership will surely speed up its adoption. PlasticScore which is US only at the moment, has plans to go global, but it will be interesting to see if local rival services start in the UK and Europe.
