Single use cutlery
Avoid an extra side of plastic
Your Challenge
Often when we order a takeaway, the restaurant will put single-use cutlery in the bag to help customers. Similarly, some food establishments give you cutlery or napkins when you’re picking up lunch on the go.
If you’re ordering food to take back to your home or picking up lunch to take back to your office, remember to say no to unnecessary cutlery. Offices often provide cutlery, and we all have cutlery at home we can use.
So next time you’re ordering food out say no to single-use cutlery with your meal.
You can also buy small knives and forks, and little holders to put them in, for when you are on the go.
Why you're doing this
It may seem like a small thing, but if we all say no to single-use cutlery we can help reduce demand for this wasteful practice. A lot of resources go into the production of single-use cutlery, which is wasted when they’re used only once before being thrown away (as many can’t be recycled). It’s not just plastic cutlery that’s a problem. Biodegradable alternatives are still not recyclable and often cannot go in food bins or home composting systems, so end up in the general rubbish bin. Bamboo chopsticks and forks may also be linked to deforestation!
How you'll make a difference
To bend the curve on nature loss and climate change we need to shift to sustainable production and consumption. If everyone on Earth were to live like the average UK citizen currently does, we would need 2.6 planets’ worth of resources.[1]
By reducing demand for unsustainable and unnecessary items, we can help reduce this footprint.
Track your progress
in the My Footprint App
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