Tips to advocate for reuse for onsite dining in your community
From Reusable LA
Listen to the podcast of this conversation:
As we have probably all witnessed, single-use disposables are increasingly used in restaurants across North America — even when diners are ordering “for here.” Over 20% of disposable foodware and packaging used by US restaurants and food service businesses could be eliminated today by making reusables the norm for onsite dining.
A reuse for onsite dining policy requires restaurants and other food service businesses to provide only reusable serviceware for customers eating on the premises. When you think about it, reuse for onsite dining is really a “back to basics” transformation. Before the advent of fast food, customers enjoying a meal while out and about were automatically served with real cups, dishes, and cutlery.
Upstream’s Local Reuse Manager Macy Zander dives into this policy model with Emily Parker, Coastal and Marine Scientist at Heal the Bay and Alison Waliszewski, Director Of Policy & Programs at The 5 Gyres Institute. Emily and Alison co-lead Reusable LA, a coalition composed of over 30 organizations advocating for more reuse across the greater Los Angeles region. Reusable LA has been instrumental in a number of single-use reduction policies being passed in the area in the last years—including the single-use plastic foodware ordinance, which included reuse for onsite dining for LA County.
Alison and Emily discuss their advocacy and top tips for those looking to bring reuse for onsite dining to their community. Here are some key takeaways from their conversation.
Effective Actions
It's important to have a strong, intentional, well-crafted internal strategy to be able to execute and strengthen relationships with community members, decision makers and restaurant groups. Reusable LA is structured with three different arms: communications, restaurant & businesses relationships, and a policy subcommittee, in addition to an open-to-all steering committee.
In our communications, we lean heavily on our e-newsletter and online engagement and make sure that whenever we send out a communication, there is always a call to action for our volunteers and subscribers.
We also break down the different types of policy jargon, like—what does a first reading mean? What is the LA County Board of Supervisors versus LA City? What are the unincorporated areas of the county? We make policy work very digestible for our community so that our audience feels like they have a grasp of the situation and can participate in a local civic opportunity.
Another thing coalition leaders need to think about is making sure community members can easily get involved. Reusable LA, for example, built a “tip cards” campaign that invites volunteers to drop a tip card at local businesses with a QR code taking them to our website, which is a resource hub to help with waste reduction policy compliance.
Lastly, we use crowd-sourced data to inform our legislators and city council members on the popularity of reuse policy measures. So when we come to policymakers with ideas, we already have the surveys to prove that the community will be supportive. Before we attempted any sort of plastics reduction ordinance in 2019, for instance, we worked with local university students to put together a multilingual survey and ascertained that 88% of restaurants would support a fee on disposables and would support legislation around reuse mandates and practices.
Opposition and Challenges
With any plastic reduction ordinance or law, there will be challenges that you face because there are those that, unfortunately, oppose these laws. With all of the laws we've tried to pass, we have faced opposition primarily from plastic production companies and others set up to make money from disposable plastics. Those are big opponents, as they tend to have a lot of power and a lot of money. But what we don't have in dollars, we make up for in community and information. That's why the tactics listed above are so important.
We also face opposition from restaurant and grocers’ associations, who tend to have a misinformed idea that these kinds of laws could result in economic hardship, or even the closing of their businesses. We have pushed really hard to dispel that misinformation and to showcase just how beneficial these laws can be for these businesses. One of our coalition members, ReThink Disposable, has done dozens of case studies, not only in LA but across the state, to show that the switch to reuse really does save businesses money. That information alone is more powerful than the millions of dollars of lobbying money that we're often up against.
While industry opposition is something we expect, we've also had unexpected issues like the COVID 19 pandemic, which skyrocketed the use of disposable plastic food serviceware, not only in LA but across the entire globe. It also unfortunately resulted in the loss of trust that reusable foodware is a safe option, even though that's not true. But that didn't matter—big plastic companies ran with this misinformation. So we had to make a big pivot. And we needed to supply ourselves with even more information to dispel the myths being pushed around the community.
The biggest thing we've learned about overcoming these challenges is the importance of having strong relationships with our community, with the impacted businesses, and with the decision-makers. That way when there is misinformation, and you come with the truth, that information is trusted. As you become known as experts in the field, then not only are you able to go to restaurants in your community and talk to them, they will join you in your advocacy.
Top tips for getting started
Creating community is the most important starting point. Connect with different types of people and build relationships—whether with a city council member and their staff so you can rely on them to vote yes or champion a bill; or with your local businesses, knowing that you can rely on them to share information about the benefits of reuse; or with the people in your community who are excited about reuse and want to push it forward.
Secondly, understand pacing, what realistic bandwidth you have, as well your strengths and weaknesses. Then, recruit partners who can complement your strengths and skill sets. Understand and transparently relay what that kind of time commitment is involved. Then you can build out a plan that will be manageable and sustainable. Because policy work isn't fast-paced, and you may need to maintain momentum over several years. In Los Angeles, for example, it took over 10 years to get an expanded polystyrene ban.
Trust is another key element for success. Building relationships takes time. And it's a two-way street. Policymakers and other community advocates and champions may not necessarily care about your issue. But if you show up for their issues, they will also show up and support on game day for your issues. Build symbiotic relationships amongst community organizers.
Advice to those working in challenging areas
There are a lot of areas where the idea of having a government ban certain materials or items can be very controversial. You can make a convincing case study out of those champions of who really do care about this issue. Highlight their commercial and marketing success, because there inevitably is a reward and a return on investment for reuse and sustainable practices. We have found—and there are studies to prove this—that customers are willing to pay more for sustainable materials, because it's something they value. So that provides brand appeal and an economic argument.
Also, look at building voluntary practices in those areas. Look at partnering with your local business improvement district to see if they would be open to running a reuse pilot. Inevitably, when you have more reuse, you're going to have cleaner city streets and less litter and plastic pollution. You could also do a brand audit or study to understand what kind of food & beverage packaging and food serviceware is littering the area, which will help make the case that more businesses could be attracted to the neighborhood if this issue were prevented.
For more resources, visit the Reuse for Onsite Dining Library.
