In many Mediterranean countries asking to carry out the leftovers from your meal is considered a taboo and “doggie bags” are literally intended as bags containing something for your dog. Tons of food get wasted every day for this cultural habit. However one of the few perks of this bad economy is that people are getting more and more careful to how they spend their money. This is why “doggie bags” are taking over Southern Europe as well.

Unfortunately trying to cut waste and being environmental friendly at the same time is not that easy. Packaging is one of the worst enemy of the environment and represents one of the biggest challenges the food industry has to face. In Canada, a new initiative aims at starting a sustainable revolution, cutting food waste while reducing the use of disposable containers and helping local farmers.

It is called The Tiffin Project and it has been developed by the Tiffin Project Foundation, a registered NGO, in collaboration with Vancouver restaurants offering takeout services. With a 25$ donation, people receive a metal re-usable take out container and have a right to a discount on their bills when they use it to pick up a takeaway or to take home leftovers from a sit-down meal, in partner restaurants. Proceeds from the containers’ sales will be invested in re-localizing The Tiffin Project’s partner restaurants’ menus. In this way restaurants will support small local farmers and will reduce the food carbon footprint. 
According to the project team if one thousand people each use their containers twice a week for a year, they all pay the cost of their containers through restaurant discounts, and “can spare local landfills of 104 thousand disposable takeout containers”.
Wouldn’t it be great if there were something like this in Europe as well?