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A Conversation on Reusable Foodware for Restaurants
March 5 @ 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Disposable single-use plastic, biodegradable tableware, and take-out containers are filled with toxic chemicals. Learn about safer solutions and help implement them.
Register at bit.ly/SUPConversation
What Are Alternatives to Disposables for Take-out and Restaurants?
Disposable single-use plastic, biodegradable tableware, and take-out containers are filled with toxic chemicals. From their creation to disposal, they contribute to human and environmental harm. They create social and environmental justice issues. We do have healthier options and systems available for eating out. Learn what they are. We will show how to create a NO Waste Community Event Bin and encourage restaurants to embrace Bring Your Own, BYO.
Yayoi Koizumi, founder of Zero Waste Ithaca and Co-Founder of BYO – US Reduces, is a Reusies Award 2022 finalist for Activist of the Year. Originally from Japan, she holds an MA in Philosophy from Howard University, leaving a Ph.D. program at Cornell with an incomplete dissertation in Asian Studies. Previously, she served as the long-time social media coordinator and website manager of Japan Focus: The Asia-Pacific Journal , focusing on interests such as the environment, geopolitics, democracy, war, and peace. She is a proud single mother of a 24-year old son, who is currently pursuing studies at the University of Vermont.
Maureen McCarthy is the FoCo Trash Mob and Zero Waste Ithaca leader. She worked at her County’s Landfill and then at her City’s Recycling Center for over 12 years as a recycling specialist/volunteer coordinator. During that time, she noticed an upward spike in single-use plastics, and a lot of confusion followed about which plastics are recyclable, where they would get recycled, and what they were recycling. The messaging became increasingly impossible when the umpteenth person waved another clamshell in her face, yelling, “What do you mean this isn’t recyclable? It says so right here!”
Maya Faulstich is a high school student and activist who is passionate about addressing climate change through reducing waste and promoting the circular economy. She co-leads her high school’s Environmental Action Club (EAC) and is an active member of Maine Youth for Climate Justice (MYCJ). As a co-leader of MYCJ’s High School Cohort, she is organizing high schools in Maine that are interested in going zero waste to collaborate and help their cafeterias switch to more sustainable systems. Her passion for ending disposability has led her to win 2nd place on National History Day for her video about the Keep America Beautiful Campaign, and her program Dishes on Demand was a National Geographic Slingshot Challenge finalist.