New York, NY (PRWEB) November 27, 2007 - More than 35 restaurants and 250 participants have already gotten off the starting blocks and joined ECO TO GO, a grass roots effort to stop plastic and paper waste, slow global warming, and protect the Amazon rain-forest.
The ECO TO GO initiative is an exciting environmental collaboration between businesses and the public. Customers call in their orders to participating restaurants and request take-out food or deliveries "ECO TO GO." The restaurant then packs the food, but with no extras. With the millions of people who order food from restaurants, we can make a huge difference.
The initiative, the brainchild of Fabian Lliguin, a New York hair dresser, and wife Anna Ayers, a trend forecaster recently received an important boost when the New York State Restaurant Association urged 1,200 members to support ECO TO GO™ as part a growing drive to green the Big Apple.
"Most restaurants provide paper napkins, plastic utensils and condiments with their outgoing orders, often in greater quantities than needed by the customer," a NYSRA newsletter reported members who represent 3,000 food service operations in the five boroughs of New York. "Much of it goes directly into the garbage, creating a municipal solid waste disposal headache and environmental nuisance, or joins a cluttered collection in our drawers and cabinets. Not only does this practice cost restaurants money, there is a frightening cost to the environment."
The ECO TO GO initiative is an exciting environmental collaboration between businesses and the public. Customers call in their orders to participating restaurants and request take-out food or deliveries "ECO TO GO." The restaurant then packs the food, but with no extras.
It's a win for everyone. Customers get to help protect the environment. So do businesses -- as they save money. And the city and its taxpayers save tax dollars spent on unnecessary waste collection and disposal. "It's a win-win-win," says ECO TO GO founder Lliguin. "Just by saying three little words, we can each do something important to save millions of tons of paper and plastic from going straight into the trash."
"This program is a proactive way for you to save money while helping the environment and promoting the profile of your restaurant. You are urged to participate," NYSRA's bulletin said. In addition to recruiting its dues-paying members, the restaurant association is "doing its best" to get the word out to the other 25,000 non-member restaurants in New York City.
Dos Caminos, EJ's Luncheonette, and NoLita House are among the restaurants that have already joined the ECO TO GO initiative.
"It's great that there's a rising awareness about what has to be done, in New York and around the United States," says Robert Eby, owner of the ever-trendy EJ's Luncheonette. "With the millions of people who order food from restaurants, we can make a huge difference."
Lliguin conceived of ECO TO GO after he started to look at the serious consequences of even his smallest actions. "It's helped me to stop needlessly consuming resources," he says. "I am so proud to see how three little words --ECO TO GO -- are empowering New Yorkers to preserve the environment and becoming New York's 'green' light to a better future for all of us."
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