Bringing reuse to Bend!
The Problem
Did you know that nearly 1 trillion disposable food service products are used each year in the United States, weighing nearly 9 million tons (equal to the weight of 5 million Subarus), with significant environmental impacts, and a likely local cost of around $1 million to manage it for residents and businesses in Deschutes County?1
From conversations with local food cart lots we’ve learned that just one lot can produce 9 cubic yards of waste per week. If you’re like me and need help visualizing 9 cubic yards, a dump truck carries around 10 cubic yards. Across the 13 food cart lots just in Bend, that adds up to 12 full dump trucks of single-use waste a week from food cart lots alone. And that’s not even including takeout containers that folks take home and throw away in their own trash. Or the hundreds of other restaurants and food places.
In addition to the downstream impacts of all that waste going to our landfill, which is expected to be full by 2029, and the harmful emissions that are released in the decomposition process, research also shows that for every pound of waste that goes into our curbside bin, 70 times that amount is created upstream2, using precious natural resources and leaving a trail of harm to our planet and its people (often with the greatest impacts left in developing countries and communities of color, low-income populations, and other groups facing historical and structural inequities).
Enter: Reuse Bend
We have a huge opportunity to change this – preventing tons of waste and shifting our culture away from disposables.
The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality offers a Reduce, Reuse, Reimagine Materials Management grant. We are working on an application for Reuse Bend: a project with two complementary components to bring reuse to Central Oregon in a real, tangible, and impactful way.
First, following the example of Rogue To Go in Ashland (who have been so gracious in sharing their journey and lessons learned), we would like to introduce our own reusable container program: Rethink To-Go.
Buy into the program once and then return the container at any participating eatery for a token or a new one. Here’s how the program works there:
Second, we want to pilot reusable dishware for all on-site dining at one food cart lot, including exploring ways to handle the dishwashing.
Together, these two programs will launch reuse across Bend, giving us a system to build upon and expand, so we can envision a world where disposables are a rarity and not the norm, and so that both as a society and through our systems we are taking steps to consume, use, and dispose of materials more responsibly.
What do you think? We would love to hear from you.
Take this brief survey to share your thoughts, and if you like, you can also sign on with your support.
Sources: