Cafes & Restaurants Customers to Use Their Own Lunchboxes

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Around the world, cafes, restaurants, and other small businesses have leaned into the “BYO” movement by encouraging customers to bring their own coffee cups or mugs in an attempt to reduce waste and lower the number of disposable drink holders that end up in landfills every year. Now, small businesses in the UK have set their sights on the next big offender: takeout boxes. According to researchers, the vast majority of takeout boxes—even the ones that are specifically disposed of in a recyclable bin—end up in landfills around the world. The new UK-based “Long Live the Lunchbox” initiative seeks to change that, the same way that the BYO Coffee Cup movement reduced the waste of paper and plastic cups worldwide.

Long Live the Lunch Box - Reducing Plastic in Restaurants - BE Furniture Sales

So What Is It, Exactly?

The Long Live the Lunchbox movement is a throwback to the carefully packed lunches that were so commonplace on the parks and playgrounds of everyone’s childhood. Basically, the initiative puts the responsibility on owners and managers at local cafes, coffee shops, restaurants, and eateries across the nation to stop giving away plastic containers that will ultimately end up buried in a landfill or dumped out at sea.

Participating businesses display a small pink badge in their building or storefront, identifying them as part of this quickly-growing movement. This badge lets customers know not to ask for a takeout box when they’ve bitten off more than they can chew. Instead, they are encouraged to bring their own Tupperware or other reusable containers, which they can use to pack up the rest of their meal and take it home.

The main goal of this initiative is to reduce the number of recyclable or non-recyclable plastic takeout containers that end up cluttering up the environment. While participating businesses are obviously not required to completely do away with their preexisting takeout containers, the Long Live the Lunchbox movement hopes that, by allowing diners to see other patrons using more sustainable packaging methods, they can encourage everyone who sees to start doing the same. The main force behind this movement is the idea of leading by example, as word of mouth spreads the idea of bringing your own lunchbox the next time you go out to eat!

A lot of businesses have already started moving away from single-use plastic packaging to more biodegradable single-use packaging, including paper or cardboard boxes that can be more easily recycled. However, the Long Live the Lunchbox movement seeks to strike at the very idea of single-use packaging as wasteful and unnecessary, when most people have plenty of containers at home that aren’t being used, and any trash is still extra trash that the environment has to process.

Ultimately, whether you use an old Tupperware box or that superhero lunchbox you’ve been hanging onto for years, the Long Live the Lunchbox movement hopes to make the sight of reusable, individual packaging a common sight across the country, thereby reducing the amount of plastic or paper waste without throwing away extra food.

Who Started It?

The Long Live the Lunchbox movement was the brainchild of Global Action Plan’s Youth Panel, a group of 18 to 25-year-old representatives that formed in 2017 with the main goal of representing the nation’s young voices that are clamouring for a change. Global Action Plan, of course, is one of the most active non-profits behind the push for climate control and environmental protection. Their efforts to promote clean air and healthy living helped organise the upcoming Clean Air Day. Global Action Plan is distinguished by its eagerness to involve young people from around the world in their efforts to protect the planet.

While the organisation behind the movement may be small, the results have already begun to grow. Restaurants across the UK, from Bristol to Belfast, from London to Leeds, have already joined the quickly expanding initiative.

Global Action Plan is specifically hoping to include fast food and casual dining environments, as well as locations like coffee shops, where the push to use single-use plastic packaging may be more intense. By focusing on these smaller, more localised locations, the group hopes to be able to have a larger community impact. The businesses involved so far range from cafes to student union dining halls, and the movement seems poised to keep growing throughout the rest of the year and beyond.

How’s it Going So Far?

As mentioned above, the Long Live the Lunchbox initiative may have started relatively recently, but it is certainly growing quickly. As of March 2019, more than 100 separate businesses have already chosen to take part in this movement, and the number seems likely to keep growing throughout the coming months.

The movement has also attracted a fair amount of media attention, doubtless as a result of the highly visible nature of the movement. Nothing gets people talking like a good meal, and the social atmosphere of most restaurants allows people pushing the movement to start a casual conversation about the merits of switching to a lunchbox line of thinking!

Another aspect of the Long Live the Lunchbox campaign that has generated a lot of positive buzz is its economic advantages. Food companies typically devote between three and five percent of their overhead costs to packaging and takeout containers. The Long Live the Lunchbox allows small businesses—especially restaurants that are just starting up and still figuring out their budgeting, or else pop-up businesses that must, by their very nature, be highly mobile—to cut back on costs and gain an edge over their competitors.

This economic factor has played a major role in persuading lots of small businesses to make the switch to green packaging, and Long Live the Lunchbox capitalises on this push by providing a fun, customer-driven initiative that still allows companies to cut costs and help the environment at the same time. As a result, the movement is growing quickly, and more and more small businesses are joining the Long Live the Lunchbox campaign in their push for a greener future.

So What Can I Do?

One of the more exciting aspects of the Long Live the Lunchbox campaign is that it is so highly individual-led and customer-driven. If you’re a small business owner looking to get involved in the LLtL initiative, you can reach out to the Global Action Plan at youthpanel@globalactionplan.org.uk or contact them on Instagram, at @globalactionplan.

If you’re just another customer looking to make a change, however, you can help make a difference by starting a conversation! The next time you’re out for dinner with friends or family, try bringing your own container and asking the restaurant staff if they’re alright with letting you put your lunchbox to use. If they allow it, bring up the Long Live the Lunchbox movement and encourage them to consider joining the growing movement.

As mentioned previously, most small businesses are always on the lookout for a way to reduce costs and increase visibility, and the Long Live the Lunchbox campaign is a great way to kill two birds with one stone. The cost effectiveness of having customers provide the majority of packaging can prove a strong incentive to local businesses, and the highly visible nature of the Long Live the Lunchbox movement will grant them an advertising boost that most companies will gladly welcome!

In this day and age, caring for the environment is one of the hallmarks of a conscious, friendly business. The Long Live the Lunchbox campaign allows like-minded customers to find businesses that they can support without any guilt or reservations, secure in the knowledge that their patronage is helping small, eco-friendly businesses generate more attention. By encouraging customers to provide their own packaging for takeout or extra food, the Long Live the Lunchbox initiative hopes to completely change the face of customer service and corporate environmentalism in the same way that similar initiatives have been struggling to do for years!

 

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