The cheapest reusable foodware is the kind a city gives you. A handful of local governments have worked out that paying for plates costs less than collecting the rubbish, and run programmes that supply restaurants with durable foodware at no cost. Two are well documented.
San Francisco: up to $700 of foodware, installed
The San Francisco Environment Department's programme is open to restaurants and cafés in the city. Staff handle the purchasing, delivery and set-up, and the programme is offered in English, Chinese, Spanish and Vietnamese. More than 200 restaurants have taken part, and the department reports savings of $3,000 to $20,000 a year once the disposables stop being bought. Six restaurant case studies are published on the page, and the department's 2019 foodware purchasing guide is still a useful product list.
Alameda County: up to $500 plus hands-on help
StopWaste, the county's waste agency, offers restaurants, cafés and food trucks with dine-in seating up to $500 of reusable plates, cups and utensils, plus hands-on help with the switch. Schools, hospitals and campuses use a separate grant. The City of Berkeley, whose foodware ordinance requires reusables for dine-in, sends its businesses here. StopWaste also publishes the clearest fact sheet on California's AB 1276, the state rule that accessories are only given on request, in four languages.
Finding yours
Programmes like these come and go with budgets, so the way to find the current one is to ask the agency that bills you for waste collection, or the city's environment department. ReThink Disposable works with local governments on these programmes in seven states. If your city has nothing, Plastic Free America's subsidy has no stated geographic limit.