PlateUp: Reducing Single-Use Plastic Takeout Waste
Project Lead: Rhea Grover
Sponsor: Cal Zero Waste
Project Theme: Waste Reduction; Education, Outreach, & Behavior Change
Project Description:
PlateUp supports students and small restaurants near UC Berkeley’s campus to reduce single-use plastic takeout waste. PlateUp does so by surveying local restaurants on their current takeout packaging, specifically pertaining to costs and performance, aiding restaurants using single-use plastics to transition to compostable or reusable takeout boxes, educating students and staff about single-use plastic waste and waste sorting, and motivating the UCB community to order from restaurants that have compostable and/or reusable takeout containers.
The proposed project consists of surveying, identifying, and assisting (10) pilot restaurants in their transition from single-use plastic takeout boxes to compostables and/or reusables. The PlateUp team will assess each restaurant’s needs and provide them with samples of various compostables and/or reusables to test over a month and identify which products work best for them. The PlateUp team subsidizes the transition, while continuing their on-campus advocacy and promoting the pilot restaurants to students and staff with an incentive program.
Goals of Project:
- Assist 10 Berkeley restaurants in a transition to reusable or compostable dining ware.
- Educate students about the impacts of single-use plastic waste.
- Promote restaurants making sustainable transitions.