Originally Posted by
skitraveler
So would a standard take-away soup not be possible anymore unless get a super fancy cardboard container that on the interior probably has some type of laminate that isn't compostable? Not that any of our 4 airbnbs had a compost bin anyway, which seemed to be the norm looking at other units.
Two restaurants really stood out to me, one in Ireland and one in Scotland. Even though most people were eating in, the food was delivered in a take-away cardboard container with the wooden cutlery. Seemed like such a waste to eat the whole pizza or all the fish and most of the chips and then toss the cardboard container and utensils when a plate and metal flatware would be less waste overall.
There are some plastics that are compostable, but likely more expensive than cardboard-based product. Even if the cardboard has to be lined for some applications, recycling methods in terms of being able to separate unlike materials are quite advanced nowadays so it's better to be able to recycle 90% of a product than the 0% that used to be the case with the single-use plastics.
Recycling is still inconsistent across UK local authorities, I'm afraid, so some will be able to process certain material types that others can't - which might explain the lack of bin types. But yes, if you're eating-in then it takes much less energy to wash a plate and metal cutlery than recycle any packaging, so that's a complete nonsense!