Tell the Wauconda Village Board to Pass Skip The Stuff!

Wauconda Village Board

Tell The Wauconda Village Board that Restaurants and Food Delivery Apps should SKIP THE STUFF!

The undersigned organizations respectfully request that you ACT NOW to pass legislation that reduces the needless waste when take-out and delivery meals come with utensils, straws, condiments, napkins, and other accessories that consumers don’t need.

The United States uses more than 36 billion disposable utensils a year. Laid end to end, they could wrap around the globe 139 times.

Each year, billions of single-use plastics and paper accessories – utensils, straws, napkins, and
condiments – are delivered to customers who order meals online and don’t need them. Most meals are delivered to homes and offices already stocked with these items.

The vast majority of these single-use items cannot be recycled. They add to our significant plastic pollution crisis, littering our streets, parks, rivers, and oceans and clogging already overfilled landfills. Cutting down trees and using more fossil fuels for items that aren’t even used makes no sense in the middle of a climate crisis.

Due to COVID-19, the problem is getting worse. Market research shows that digital orders increased by 127 percent in the second quarter of 2020 compared with the same time last year.2

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the problem. Consumption of single-use plastics has increased by 250-300 percent since the pandemic began, resulting in a thirty percent increase in waste which is attributed to personal protective equipment (PPE), packaging, and disposable foodware.3

But when restaurants only provide accessories on request and provide them with delivery orders unless the customer specifically requests them, they can save money and prevent mountains of trash.

Restaurants and the online ordering platforms should default to no single-use accessories for orders unless the customer specifically requests them. Uber Eats has already done it! But we need a legislative solution because delivery apps and technology platforms will come and go and corporate policies change. We need a permanent fix that ensures that all take-out and delivery orders only provide accessories that the customer needs.

We urge you to ACT NOW and pass legislation that requires restaurants to “ask first” and delivery and online ordering platforms to provide a customer opt-in for the specific accessories and condiments on the menu of each restaurant.

Respectfully,

Ryan Harrison
Go Green Wauconda


Petition by
Ryan Harrison
Ryan Harrison
Wauconda, Illinois
Sponsored by
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Go Green Wauconda

To: Wauconda Village Board
From: [Your Name]

It's time to pass Skip the Stuff Legislation

Dear Wauconda Village Board member:

I/we urge you to pass legislation that reduces the needless waste that occurs when take-out and delivery meals come
with utensils, straws, condiments, napkins, and other accessories that consumers don’t need.

Restaurants and the online ordering platforms they use should only provide single-use accessories for when customers specifically request them. Uber Eats has already done it! We need a permanent fix that ensures that all take-out and delivery orders only provide accessories that the customer needs.

The United States uses more than 36 billion disposable utensils a year. Laid end to end, they could wrap around the globe 139 times.1

Americans use as much as 142 billion straws each year.2

Each year, billions of single-use plastics and paper accessories – utensils, straws, napkins, and condiments – are given to customers who order meals for take-out or
delivery and don’t need them. Most take-out and delivery meals go to homes and offices already stocked with these items.

The vast majority of these single-use items cannot be recycled. They add to our significant plastic pollution crisis, littering our streets, parks, rivers, and oceans and clogging already overfilled landfills. Cutting down trees and using
more fossil fuels for items that aren’t even used makes no sense in the middle of a climate crisis.

Due to COVID-19, the problem is getting worse. Market research shows that digital orders increased by 127 percent
in the second quarter of 2020 compared with the same time last year.3

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the problem. Consumption of single-use plastics has increased by 250-300 percent since the pandemic began, resulting in
a thirty percent increase in waste which is attributed to personal protective equipment (PPE), packaging, and disposable foodware. But restaurants can save money and prevent mountains of trash by simply asking first.

We urge you to ACT NOW and pass legislation that requires restaurants and online ordering platforms to “ask first” before giving customers unwanted disposable foodware accessories. It’s time to #SkiptheStuff!

1 Sietsema,Tom, “All my takeout has delivered a mountain of trash. So I asked experts how to minimize it.” Washington Post, Sept. 14, 2020
2 Niraj, Chokshi, “How a 9-Year-Old Boy’s Statistic Shaped a Debate on Straws.” New York Times - July, 2018.
3 Sietsema,Tom, “All my takeout has delivered a mountain of trash. So I asked experts how to minimize it.” Washington Post, Sept. 14, 2020