Westporters love our restaurants. They’ve got great food, and offer excellent service.
We get the same great food when we order takeout. We don’t get the dining-in service — but we get lots of “stuff.”
Plastic utensils. Napkins. Straws. Condiment packets.
The kind of stuff that we usually already have at hand, and probably don’t need,
Do you really need all that stuff?
Sustainable Westport, the Town of Westport, Westport Farmers’ Market, Westport Downtown Association and the Westport Weston Chamber of Commerce all say: Enough!
They’ve banded together to encourage Westport to #SkipTheStuff. The goal is to reduce unnecessary takeout waste from local restaurants.
#SkipTheStuff is part of a national campaign to enact legislation requiring restaurants to ask before adding unnecessary “stuff” to orders.
Good news! We’re head of the game. Westport already has an ordinance prohibiting food service establishments from including “stuff” in orders without request.
It’s part of the Single-Use Plastics Ordinance, adopted by the Representative Town Meeting in 2019.
Westport’s #SkipTheStuff campaign encourages residents to only ask for the single-use or disposable items you truly need.
At the same time, don’t expect food service establishments to provide you with “extras” or “stuff.” By law, they should be included in your order only if you specifically ask for them.
Westporters should invest in reusable “travel utensils” to carry with you, if you won’t be eating your takeout meal at home.
For more information about #SkipTheStuff, click here.
(“06880” supports a sustainable Westport. And we hope readers will support — and sustain — “06880.” To make a tax-deductible contribution, please click here. Thank you!)
This makes me so happy! I know this campaign has worked well in other areas such as Tarrytown, NY. We do a lot of takeout and delivery and some restaurants are brilliant at figuring out what is appropriate and some just are terrible at it. One I’ll mention is Outpost Pizza — don’t get me wrong, I love Outpost but they put no thought into how they package their meals. Every dish is in a separate paper bag and usually has plastic utensils with it. They don’t follow delivery guidelines when the site specifically says no utensils, and they don’t respond to complaints about it. I accumulate all of the utensils I collect and give them back to them every few months.
There are some other problem children as well but that’s enough for now!
Actually, the 2019 ordinance devised and passed by the RTM (spearheaded by Andrew Colabella and worked on and supported by the Environment Committee) doesn’t just encourage people to ask for no “stuff”. It requires that many single use plastics (and other stuff like styrofoam) not be used at all. When it was written, acceptable alternatives for some item were not readily available so those were not included in the ordinance. Here’s hoping that industry catches up! (Have you seen the reports about the amount of plastic present in virtually every person now?)
Another way to avoid the use of more plastic is to bring takeout containers from home to fill up with the leftovers on your plate. Just don’t do it on a first date!
Thank you Wendy.
The ordinance in fact that I wrote and was passed unanimously by the RTM with input from all in 2019 does have the following:
1. Upon request for any and all takeout ware (utensils, to-go cups, additional condiments, etc)
2. Inclusionary Exemption for the disabled
3. Flexible application of choice for food establishments to extend inventory lifespan and reduce costs/shipping.
This campaign does not codify the effort, the ordinance does. Enforcement is by conservation and WWHD when inspecting food establishments, which is already within the scope of the inspectors job.
For the last month, I have been visiting food establishments on my own going over practices with staff and owners.
It’s a process that does not happen overnight and will take time, especially with the unfortunate impact of Covid, supply chain shortages, and inflation.
Glad to see these stakeholders get on board and follow through what restaurants have mostly been doing already in town 🙂