Do Take-Out Containers Go In The Trash, Recycling Or Compost? [Week 7]

Posted On February 17, 2021

While we are still in a pandemic, it’s important to help out small restaurants where we can. But what do you do with all the waste?! Here’s a handy guide to help you learn where to dispose of all those take-out containers and extras that come along with getting meals to-go.

Amanda Drews, 12 minute read

Let’s talk about:

• What can you do to reduce the amount of waste when you get take-out?
• Which take-out containers can you recycle?
• Want to just watch the video?
• Which take-out containers can you compost?
• What I found out about some of the brands of “compostable” take-out containers
• What’s just trash?
• Biodegradable packaging
• What I found out when I called every restaurant in our county

What can you do to reduce the amount of waste when you get take-out?

An easy answer to reducing take-out container waste would be don’t get it in the first place. Forget that. Unless you are an amazing gourmet chef that loves cooking every night at home. Then go for it. For the rest of us, going out to eat is often a welcome break from having to figure out what to feed the brood at home.

As people move away from buying meaningless objects, they are instead spending more time and money on experiences. If you have the privilege to support your local restaurants right now and feel comfortable doing so, I would encourage you to go find out what your community has to offer. Try something new!

We use going out to restaurants as an event in itself or to celebrate milestones. You graduated first grade?! Let’s go get cupcakes! You’re getting married tomorrow?! Let’s have another expensive dinner tonight! You got a job promotion?! Congrats, you’re buying.

Eating out at local restaurants helps support your community and neighbors.

Think of how many people you know that have been employed in a restaurant at some point in their lives. Whether you are a career chef or a teenage dishwasher just trying to make a few bucks, restaurants serve as a workplace for some 15.6 million people in the United States alone.

That also means there is a huge potential for making a large industry more sustainable by supporting the ones that take those extra steps towards being a bit greener.

You can also reduce your waste in the first place by getting into some of these habits when you order take-out:

• Keep a re-usable water bottle with you when you go out for the day. Then you won’t have to buy something bottled to wash your food down that you decided to get while you were out. This will also probably be healthier for you as well because you’ll be less tempted to order something sugary instead.
• Ask over the phone or put a special note in the online ordering form for them to not include extras you don’t need. Silverware, straws, extra sauce packets etc. I’m sure they would rather not give away the items they had to purchase if you don’t need them.
• Use your own reusable containers when possible. There may be laws in your community that don’t allow this and it may be even more limited during pandemic days. Just ask. In Minnesota, there isn’t any restriction saying a restaurant can’t do this but the individual restaurant has the right to not allow it in their facility.

Which take-out containers can you recycle?

Let’s think about our Rules of Recycling. Some big points you will want to keep in mind as you think about your take-out containers are:

• That “recycling symbol” does not mean an item is recyclable. It is a resin identification code that tells you what an item is made of.
• Clean, Empty, Dry, Caps On– this means there should be no more than a teaspoon of food residue left on your container (including liquid). You don’t want it contaminating the rest of your recyclables.
• Keep all items loose and un-bagged- even if you have clean, recyclable take-out containers and they give you a paper bag, don’t put all your items in that bag in curbside recycling. Dump all the items first, then flatten the bag and put it in with the other loose items.
• Only recycle #1, 2, and 5 non-black plastic take-out containers– be aware that #6 can be clear and look like the ones that are actually recyclable. Black plastic has no market here right now. Anything that is a plastic-like compostable item should not go in the recycling.
• Only recycle items larger than a Post-It note or credit card- a lot of those little sauce take-out containers are too small to make it through the sorting machinery. They will just end up in the landfill anyways.
• No receipts, plastic bags, film or wrap– that receipt goes into the trash. If your meal comes in a plastic bag, take it to a plastics drop-off location to be recycled. They cannot go in your curbside bin.

Here are some recyclable items you might find in take-out:

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• Aluminum foil/ tin foil- if it is clean and at least 3 inches in diameter, it can go in the recycling. You can save up the smaller tin foil pieces until you have a large enough ball.
• Pizza boxes- only the half that wasn’t touching the greasy pizza!
• ***In special plastic film recycling drop-off sites only! The plastic wrapper from around cutlery if it can stretch in 2 directions. Same for plastic bags.
• Glass
• Plastic take-out containers that are #1, 2 or 5 and not black. These could be the lids or the container. Just give them a quick wipe or rinse to get rid of food residue.

Which take-out containers can you compost?

First of all, let’s not waste the delicious food you just paid good money for!

But it happens, sometimes it’s because you got terrible food and sometimes it’s the giant portions we receive at some restaurants. I feel like I get half my meals from the food my kids end up not eating. My 2 year old often likes to make art of her food and her favorite medium is milk. I’m not eating that. For the food you do have leftover, send it off to be composted. When food rots in landfills it can give off methane which, is even worse than CO2 as far as contributing to climate warming greenhouse gases.

Here are some tips to reduce your food waste when bringing home take-out meals:

• Do your best to eat leftovers. Talk to your partner about what you are getting and split two meals you will both like so you don’t feel like you are eating the same thing over the next two days.
• Consider what might not reheat well, eat those foods first. People always wonder why I eat all my French fries first. It’s because once they have to be reheated they aren’t as good!
• Think about if your kids are actually going to eat an entire meal. Let them take parts of yours instead.
• Use clear containers in your fridge for leftovers and have a specific spot for food you should eat soon. This way your leftovers don’t get shoved to the back of the fridge and forgotten about.
• Put your leftovers in an obvious place so you don’t forget to put them in the fridge in the first place. I say this because once I left a Chipotle burrito in a random plastic bag instead of my purse. Found it in my basement…6 months later!

When looking at the containers to see if they are compostable, please keep in mind the restrictions your local composting site has.

Our composting site only accepts BPI certified items. That means they have to at least meet one of two ASTM standards. The guy I talked to at The Mulch Store told me ASTM standards help set guidelines for materials but does not mean the product as a whole is BPI certified compostable. Parts of it may be compostable but not necessarily the combination of parts.

• ASTM D6400- this is for products like bags and cutlery made of compostable polymers
• ASTM D6868-this is for products like coffee cups containing natural fibers

Getting BPI certified means a company has to spend thousands of dollars to go through that process and then to keep their BPI membership and licensing. Take into consideration that some companies may meet standards but might not be certified. However, to be sure, go for the certified ones if you are using an industrial composting facility.

Here are some compostable take-out items:

• Pizza boxes-the half that has food residue on it
• Chopsticks and the paper wrapper they come in
• Items made out of Kraft paper (that’s the brown paper)
• Paper bags
• Brown napkins
• Food!

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What I found out about some of the different brands of “compostable” containers

• World Centric: based in Rohnert Park, CA. BPI certified, B corporation, all of their products are “compostable in commercial composting facilities”, gives 25% of profits “to grassroots social and environmental organizations and to offset our carbon emissions.” and zero “carbon footprint due to our offsets.” They are a 1% for the planet company and use FSC certified materials.

• Renewables brand: Down to Earth Packaging: based in Maple Grove, MN. They are listed on BPI‘s website but make no mention of being BPI certified on theirs. The coffee cup I had that was made by them and listed on BPI said, “Compostable in industrial facilities. Not suitable for backyard composting. This compostable product conforms to ASTM D6868, EN13432 and FDA standards.” They use plant sugar or cellulose and recycled content for their products. The lining is made of polylactic acid (PLA) coated paper and coated with NatureWorks Ingeo polymers (another Minnesota company.)

• EcoChoice: based out of Lancaster, PA. This is a part of Clark Associates Inc. who own a variety of other brands including a similar line of products called Choice for restaurants. They also own Webstaurantstore.com and The Restaurant Store. Listed as BPI certified, no certification labels on the actual containers. Just the words “biodegradable” and “compostable”. Their website mentions some of the charities they donate to.

• Eco-Products, Inc: Boulder, CO based Eco-Products creates only BPI compostable and USDA certified biobased products. They are a B corporation and offer zero waste consulting and life cycle analysis reports. Parent company is Carlyle Group Management L.L.C.

• Monogram cleaning and disposables: are a part of Rosemont, IL based US Foods. US Foods is listed under BPI as certified with many Monogram products under the certification. This exact container that is listed as compostable on the website does not appear in the list of certified BPI products in the company, which is very confusing. They are a USDA certified biobased product-Product 92%

• Sabert Corporation: based out of Sayreville, NJ. Is listed on BPI but only for its cutlery products. They feature a Green Collection Packaging that is TUV Austria OK COMPOST certified.

• GenPak 2- Charlotte, NC based. Their Harvest Fiber products meet ASTM 6868 standards and should degrade in industrial composting facilities in 90 days but no mention of any certifications. Parent company is First Atlantic Capital, Ltd.

• Bio Plus Terra II #8– by Fold-Pak from Westrock Company. Westrock is based out of Atlanta, GA. BNQ certified (that’s a Canadian certification) “Made in North America from US and Canadian materials from 100% recycled paper (90% post-consumer content). Recyclable. Remove food residue before recycling. Compostable www.Compostable.info Certificate 2551″

I spent so many hours trying to research these items!

There is a definite need for labeling standards. The average person is not going to sit there and dig through the internet for information on how to get rid of their take-out containers. They will either compost them hoping they are ok, this is similar to Wish-cycling, or chuck them in the trash when they might actually be compostable.

This is why the products need to be labeled better! Think of how impactful the How2Recycle labels have been for recycling. Let’s do the same for compostable products.

Certifications are needed. The words “compostable”, “eco-friendly” and “biodegradable” can be used for Greenwashing and do not hold the weight a certification has.

On BPI’s website, as of September 2020, they put out a guideline PDF to start a conversation about the need to label and identify compostable products.

While I was speaking with the guy from our composting facility, he said they take BPI items because that’s the standard they have tested for at their site. I’m not sure what all would have to happen to test for some of those other certifications such as BNQ or TUV Austria OK COMPOST?

The ball is rolling, let’s keep pushing it. To my beloved restaurants- please know what your local composting facilities take and let your customers know exactly what to do with their take-out packaging as well. There is no reason for you to pay extra for packaging that isn’t going to end up in the right place. Cities, composting sites and restaurants should all be working together. The composting sites have less contamination from items that don’t belong there, the restaurants know exactly what to buy and the residents are more informed. The city of Minneapolis has set some rigid standards with their Green to Go program.

What’s just trash?

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• Plastics that are not #1, 2 or 5
• Receipts
• Plastic straws
• #6 polystyrene-commonly known by the brand name Styrofoam
• Anything that was directly protecting food in the freezer such as ice cream containers
• White napkins
• Anything with a waxy coating, such as traditional coffee or soup cups
• Condiment packets like small soy sauce or ketchup packets

Let’s talk about biodegradable packaging.

Remember from above how I mentioned food rotting in landfills and releasing methane? Biodegradable packaging does the same thing. It’s made out of plants, plants degrade. End of story.

Biodegradable items can break down in 2 ways:

• Aerobically-that’s with oxygen
• Anaerobically-that’s without oxygen

When a biodegradable item is breaking down just out in the environment, it is exposed to sunlight and oxygen which not only speeds up the process but lets it do so without releasing a large amount of methane. Climate warming methane is released when bacteria that thrive in anaerobic conditions, such as underneath a landfill, start breaking down and digesting food and biodegradable items ultimately producing biogas in the form of methane. That’s right. All this worry over bacteria farts. Those tiny farts are a big deal though. In 2018, Methane Emissions in the US from municipal solid waste landfills accounted for 15 % of total methane emissions.

“The methane emissions from MSW landfills in 2018 were approximately equivalent to the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from more than 20.6 million passenger vehicles driven for one year or the CO₂ emissions from more than 11.0 million homes’ energy use for one year.”

-EPA (2018)

Just because something is biodegradable doesn’t necessarily mean compostable.

So are we supposed to continue to rely on petroleum and use plastic bags that don’t degrade quickly or do we throw away biodegradable bags into the trash to release methane in the landfills? Some other factors to consider are how fast does that biodegradable material decompose? It takes about 1 year from when an item ends up in a landfill for conditions to become anaerobic around it (EPA 2020).

Another question is how much energy is going into producing some of these different types of packaging? And are they safe enough to be around our food? Is it any worse than health risks from plastic? The EPA warns of adverse affects that PFAs (chemicals that are often used to make compostable containers less absorbent) can cause health issues as they don’t easily leave the body. This article considers the life cycle analysis for bio plastics. Many of the claims on how long biodegradable materials take to degrade seem to be exaggerated. I’m by no means saying lets just give up and go back to using plastic everything. I’m all for new technology, there’s just a lot of questions to ask.

What I found out when I called every restaurant in our county

Over the last year, I called, stopped by or got food from 224 restaurants in the southern half of the Twin Cities in Minnesota. Here are what some of the local restaurants use for packaging with their carry out meals. Please keep in mind, some of this was by word of mouth or relying on what they said over the phone. Also, take into consideration the fact that we are in the middle of a pandemic and restaurants have to do what they can to stay open. That may mean taking a break from buying supplies that cost more.

• 39 use just polystyrene foam (Styrofoam)
• 31 use just plastic (mainly the black bottoms and clear tops)
• The rest were a mix of packaging, language barriers, phones not ringing through, restaurants that had closed down, and being told they were too busy to answer my one question (“Goodbye potential customer!” is what I heard)

Thank you to the restaurants that helped me out with this!

Some were even kind enough to give me samples or offered to run in the back to look at the packaging the containers came in. I had some good conversations with people. One bartender was appalled that they only used Styrofoam. The guys at Giuseppe’s Restaurant waved me in and showed me the giant pile of take-out containers he had just gotten in but wanted to know what he can order in the future to do better. I had another restaurant where the the host was all excited to show me the recyclable container they had but it was Styrofoam. It shows the need for learning how to recycle, what disposal options you have in your community and what products you are giving your patrons.

1). Thank the owners of the restaurants you get food from who have green initiatives. Call them up, ask for them personally the next time you pick up food or give them a shout out on social media or online reviews.

2). Get in the habit of looking at your to-go containers to figure out where they go after your meal is done. Take some time to Google the company if you have to. Keep a list of places and what they use if it helps you remember.

3). Download the PlasticScore: Zero Waste Dining App. Add info in on restaurants in your community to help grow their network.

4). Go on to learn about how to recycle plastic bags, film and wrap in Week 8.