On Disposable Containers

Sit Spot! Stay In Spot! Good Spot!

I'm all for going out for a bite to eat. It is a social behaviour, an excuse to get out of the house, a way to try something new that you may not be brave enough to try yourself or have the billions of ingredients (or patience) to create every exotic or inventive dish out there. And, we are so lucky in Vancouver to have the number and selection of restaurants that we do. It's truly become a way of life and a part of how we live.

We can now choose from many restaurants who buy and cook their food healthily and ethically with the community in mind.

So when we think about going out I say: "Stay out! Sit! Relax! Make someone else cook for you and do the dishes! Bring your own take out container in case you can't finish your meal.

• Manufacturers produce more than 15 million tons of polystyrene (aka Styrofoam) each year, but we recycle less than 1% of it. Those plastic utensils are hard to recycle too.
• Styrofoam is made using cancer-causing benzene and the brain toxin styrene, which can migrate into food.

Ideal Bite says that if 10,000 people stopped ordering takeout once a week, in a year we'll keep the weight of up to 7,722 orders of chow mein in trash outta landfills.

"Since 1960, the amount of packaging in garbage has increased 80%. Plastic debris is hazardous to wildlife. Each year more than 2 million birds, turtles, whales, dolphins and seals become entangled in floating plastic debris, or mistake it for food. Tip: choose products with less packaging and buy in bulk whenever possible.

Canadians use more than eight billion disposable cups each year. Meanwhile, Statistics Canada tells us that 30 per cent of us still drink predominantly bottled water. What's worse, the Union of Concerned Scientists tells us that 90 per cent of water bottles are not recycled. If we all remember to carry our reusable coffee cups with us, we can reduce limit our impact significantly." - David Suzuki Foundation

While you're at it. Buy a stanless steel water bottle and replace those 1-time use disposable bottles!!!

Have you ever seen the garbage at the end of a day at a festival or outdoor event? Pick one ... any one.

A litre of bottled water now costs way more than a litre of gas, but it is estimated that 10 million water bottles are dumped every year in B.C. landfills, according to the B.C. Water and Wastewater Association.