Eating In Berkeley: The Single-use Epidemic

Every October, EthiCAL Apparel challenges itself with our Zero Waste October challenge. As someone working towards a degree focused on sustainability and combating environmental challenges, I figured it would be easy to increase my conscientiousness for the month. However, nobody could have expected how difficult it is to live as a busy student without producing some sort of waste.

For context, our Zero Waste October challenge consists of a month of challenges focused on promoting sustainability and reducing waste. We use positive and negative reinforcement and a point system with punishments to encourage club members to participate. As a very competitive club, these incentives seem to work… most of the time. Throughout this month, I and others in the club have found ourselves in situations where we are forced to choose between personal well-being and being shamed for waste.

Single-Waste Utensils Plague Berkeley

For example, I had a Monday where I was stuck on campus from 9:00 in the morning until 8:00 that night. One can only pack so many Tupperware containers in their bag, and as a person who, to put it nicely, needs a lot of fuel throughout their day, I was struggling. After finishing the one meal I packed for the day, I caved and looked for somewhere close to grab food. As I racked my brain for a source of food without producing any waste, I found it almost impossible. That experience made me think about how normalized grabbing food with a to-go container and plastic utensils is, so I decided to research and find out how hard it is to eat here in Berkeley without producing waste.

I surveyed 20 of the most popular places to eat and was shocked to find that only five could serve food without using single-use items. That's only 25%, without including the plethora of boba spots. Seeing these results and knowing how many students I see rushing in and out of restaurants, bags of food in hand ready to head to MLK or Moffitt, I started to think about how the waste produced by something as simple as grabbing Chipotle or heading to Yi Fang could add up over time.

So that begs the question, where can you eat without the guilt of waste? A couple of options around campus include Mezzo, Gypsys, Noodle Dynasty, and Thai Basil, all classics for students. Even if you want occasional boba or takeout, bringing a reusable cup and straw or utensils can mitigate the impact.

“Godfather’s Favorite Pasta”, from Gypsy’s

Through my observations, Berkeley’s culture is the main perpetrator of this issue, not individuals. Unfortunately, the shift towards no-contact kiosks and contactless service has led to the normalization of the grab-and-go, single-use restaurant. Consumers will be a part of the solution; recognizing these issues, making more conscious choices, and demanding better. However, most of the responsibility lies with the restaurants which must work with the city and University to provide solutions. One solution that would cut back on a major contributor of waste is reusable cups for boba shops. Customers could buy a reusable cup from any particular shop, and be rewarded for using the cup with a free drink after an arbitrary amount of uses. Not only would this reduce the waste produced overall, but it would also increase returning (and happy!) customers, and reduce store spending. While it may not be easy, solutions like these would be a monumental step in making our community more sustainable.