A campaign run by Green Initiatives, to encourage restaurants and various F&B outlets to use less single-use plastics. We have reached out to some of Shanghai’s bigger F&B chains about reducing their usage of single-use plastics, but we’ve not received a response, therefore we’re bringing up this campaign.
What is this about?
A busy city like Shanghai has endless food destinations for consumers to stop for meals, drinks and snacks. Unfortunately, for the sake of convenience and often out of lack of knowledge about environmental issues, most food & beverage (F&B) establishments give away single-use plastics to their customers as the default – even if customers didn’t ask for it. We believe this is unnecessary and taxing to the environment – especially at a time when many global brands have already been committing to removing single-use plastics from their businesses.
Non-recyclable, single-use plastic takes on many forms such as cutlery, plates, straws, styrofoam containers, and take away paper cups that are actually lined with plastic.
The problem of ‘Single-Use’ plastics
Single-use plastic items are thrown away in massive quantities every day.
While we may forget about these products once they are tossed in the trash, these plastics do not just disappear. They end up in the Earth’s soil, fresh water, oceans, and other natural environments. The toxic waste harms wildlife, destroys ecosystems, and leaches harmful chemicals into our food and water. (source)
With this campaign we urge people to speak up about the plastic pollution problem to F&B business owners on public platforms or personal meetings, to ask to reduce or eliminate disposable plastics from their outlets/restaurants.
How to participate
As F&B owners/managers:
- Download a pledge document attached in the sidebar
- Check the items that you pledge to eliminate, and the time scope needed for this change
- Send it to us.
We will display your pledges on this webpage, as well as at the end of the month we’ll release a WeChat article listing honorable mentions to all the F&B establishments that have signed the pledge to eliminate disposable plastics from their service.
Scroll to the bottom of the page to see all the signed pledges.
As Individuals:
- Snap a picture of the plastic item you see in a F&B outlet
- Use Bon App for both EN/CN reviews or 大众点评 Dianping for CN reviews
- Post a review with a hashtag #plasticfreefnb, asking them to replace plastics with reusables
- Screenshot your review and send it to us by wechat (‘greenimpact’) or email (paf@greeninitiatives.cn)
Remember, the review should be constructive, not negative. Our goal is to create positive change by collaborating together with businesses to reduce waste. We understand that even if their service includes disposable plastics, their food might still be delicious!
