Choose Green Report: Rigid Quick Serve Food Packaging

May/June 1999

Covers paper, starch/limestone, and polystyrene packaging. Green Seal offers a menu of recommended products, repeating the mantra that non-rigid packaging is preferable — when it’s feasible to use. For all of the dismal data on packaging waste from the food-service industry, the report doesn’t serve up much more than common sense: buy recycled, pick biodegradable products, etc. Green Seal “appreciates the complex and controversial nature of disposable food-service products.” And seems to be avoiding discussion of more radical proposals. (Although there is a single sentence devoted to the idea of offering discount incentives to customers who bring their own cups or plates.) The report is geared toward the folks who buy packaging for food-service businesses, but product designers, systems thinkers, and consumers should digest this information as well. It will take all of us to address this issue.