No Take Out and Events

From the Brooklyn Green Team, an online and physical group of Brooklynites interested in the environment and many other things green.  See below for their latest Challenge...

Brooklyn Green Team 

& GreenEdge Collaborative NYC 

Present

No Take-Out Challenge!* 

3 months. 3 meals a day.
Do it for your wallet!  Do it for the planet!

PACKAGING STATISTICS: What are we doing?

Almost 1/3 of the waste generated in the US is from packaging! Plastic takes 1,000 years to decompose (and really it just keeps getting smaller and smaller).

The US population tosses out enough paper and plastic cups, forks and spoons every year to circle the equator 300 times. Read that again.

Paper comes from trees. Plastic comes from oil. To obtain either one, worldwide forests are being contaminated and destroyed.

(source: treehugger.com)

RESOURCES: Can I?

This great article from Greenbiz suggests ways your company can begin to use eco-friendlier take-out packaging.

This article from Planet Green proposes a bunch of ways to reduce plastic, including take-out, in your kitchen.

This cute video with a nifty take on plastic was done by eco-to-go.org. 

This site is also an excellent resource for statistics describing take-out containers on the environment.

This article from Treehugger.com gives helpful tips on what to do with the glut of take-out containers piling up in your cabinets.  It also describes an initiative by the New York based group, The Eco-Agents, in which customers can request to use their own take-out containers from Restaurants.

This article from The Daily Green lists the ten most (and least) green containers.   It contains the pluses and minuses on take-out containers from Styrofoam (Least Green) to Cardboard Boxes (Not As Green As You Might Think) to Edible/Inedible Containers Made From Food (Cha-Ching!).

This article from Diamondback Online describes an initiative at the University of Maryland to reduce take-out container uses and discusses the difficulties and successes they had in attaining their goals.

SOLUTIONS: Sure You Can!
Breakfast at Home. Pack Your Lunch. Stay at the Restaurant.  

Visit our website for a list of restaurants that use eco-friendly take-out packaging. 

If you must take something to go, get a sandwich or burrito wrapped only in foil (and reuse it) and put in your own bag or tote.

Check our blog for suggestions on restaurants that use eco-friendly packaging.


email brooklyngreen@gmail.com and write "I Take No More!" (Include first & last name and zip)

ONE MORE REMINDER:

In case you didn't yet do your three hours of volunteer service, Volunteer with Brooklyn Green Team and GreenEdge as part of It's My Park! Day.

Date: Saturday, May 16th

Time: 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.

Meeting Place: Grand Army Plaza Entrance to Prospect Park, near the Eagle Column

This event may include weeding, raking, sweeping, path edging, lake-shore clean-up, litter patrol, etc.  We can take up to 20 people so PLEASE RSVP by replying to this email with your name and how many you are bringing. We will check in with you closer to the event.

*We define take-out as either delivery or going into a restaurant and having it wrapped up "to-go." We're not in this case referring to taking your left-overs with you - although we encourage you to try brining your own tupperware. 

POW. YOU'VE BEEN GREENED!

Brooklyn Green Team

Join our Group Groupies of Brooklyn Green Team on GreenEdge Collaborative!