Plastic-Free Takeout

With my tofu burnt and my veggies underdone, it is safe to say I am a truly horrendous cook. For me and I’m sure many others who are only capable of creating inedible concoctions in the kitchen, I often rely on prepared food and takeout is an extremely prevalent part of my life.

With the pandemic, I find myself even more drawn to takeout, but I must hold back for I am not unaware of the terrible impact that this has on our environment, namely an increase in single-use plastic consumption. These plastic bags, plastic utensils, and plastic containers used for an average of one hour will spend a lifetime in our landfills or our oceans.

As the coordinator for the student activist group CALPIRG’s Plastic-Free Seas Campaign, I am working to make it our mission to try and hold large contributors of single-use plastics accountable. One of the main contributors of plastic pollution in the grocery store world is Whole Foods. We are calling on Whole Foods to change their ways by reducing the amount of single-use plastic items they produce in order to protect our environment and our future — which hopefully involves some delicious takeout delivered in the most sustainable way.