In the height of a nationwide shutdown and unpredictable pandemic, brothers Harrison and Kevin Kay grew fond of the new norm – closed or limited restaurants meant enjoying takeout food services in the comfort of your own home. But, with a demand for takeout comes an increase in product waste, a price the two vegans were not willing to pay.
Instead of contributing to the waste, the D.C. natives brought To Go Green into fruition, the District’s first reusable takeout container service.
“Nationwide, we go through over 200 billion single-use takeout containers and clamshells annually, and that creates a lot of waste, that creates a lot of litter, [and] marine ecosystem problems. In D.C., specifically, we do have a very big waste problem,” said Harrison Kay. “We really need a system change and mindset change, more than anything else, which is, ‘Let’s reuse the materials we have, rather than using them once and just tossing them away and letting it be somebody else’s problem.’”
As outlined in Mayor Bowser’s Zero Waste DC Plan, the government is seeking a ban on all single-use foodware, including compostables, an opportunity the co-founders saw as an advantage to influence waste generation.
Through the Ditch the Disposables grant, awarded by Chesapeake Bay Trust, the Department of Energy and Environment (DOEE), and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office, To Go Green offers an environment-friendly dining experience, where customers can pick up or deliver food directly through the online platform and receive their orders in reusable packaging designed to withstand at least 1,000 uses.
So far, the inaugural project has partnered with Uber and a dozen restaurant locations in Northwest D.C., promising a reliable service that benefits not only the environment but consumers as well. Customers have three weeks to return their containers, either at their door or in person, to any of the restaurant partners for cleaning and reuse, which is regulated by the same standards that current restaurateurs use under the District’s health code.
Whereas oftentimes, delivered food might come cold or below expectations, To Go Green, packaged in sturdy, durable containers, ensures hot food, appealing presentation and a “premium dining experience,” according to 21-year-old co-founder Harrison Kay.
“People are intrinsically attracted to our service because of not just the value proposition, but ordering in reusable containers creates a better experience for you as the customer,” Harrison Kay told The Informer. “We see this for D.C., specifically as a great convenience for both restaurants – who often incur cycling contamination fines for their waste – and for customers. Returning our containers is easier than taking out the trash. You can just leave them right at your door, schedule pickup with a click of a button, and it’s taken away for cleaning.”
Shaping Local Waste Management to Effect National Change
As of 2018, the District’s annual citywide solid waste stream is baselined at 1.13 million tons, which equates to 8.89 pounds of solid waste generated per resident per day, according to the Zero Waste DC Plan, a culmination of eight years of technical research and analysis with 43 action plans to achieve zero waste. Over 80% of this annual waste is sent to landfills and incinerators, which creates environmental injustices for neighboring communities.
Contributing factors to the disservice of waste generation include ineffectual usage of reusable products, populated apartment complexes that fall victim to trash management, and a lackluster education of environmental practices.
“The three R’s – reduce, reuse, recycle – those are hierarchical for a reason. There’s a reason that reuse comes before recycling, and that’s because the EPA…ranks source reduction and reuse ahead of recycling when it comes to environmental impact,” said Kevin Kay, 30. “I think what probably could have a broader impact is getting customers to transition from recycling things that may only be single-use to reusing things that, in the case of our containers, can be reused about 1,000 times before they have to be recycled.”
While the Kay brothers encourage the local policies and similar startup programs working towards a zero waste future, the youngest of the two said, in order to effect nationwide change, residents need to be educated on proper waste management and recognize it as an issue that impacts communities and livelihood as a whole.
“Recycling isn’t the answer to our waste crisis, we can’t just recycle our way out of the problem that we’re in,” he said. “We have to extend the lifespan of materials and really place a higher value on them, rather than this disposable mindset where we, as a society, spend…all this time and resources into this one product that’s used for a few minutes, and then forgotten about, and goes on to have an impact on our environment for sometimes centuries on end.”
With plans to expand throughout the DMV and eventually beyond it, To Go Green may serve as the first of its kind in elevating zero-waste restaurant services, but the brothers are rest assured it will not be the last.
“Customers want this. Restaurants are having no problems adopting it. And we don’t really see this as an ‘if,’ we see it as a ‘when’ this becomes mainstream, we think that eating takeout out of single-use packaging will become as taboo as smoking on an airplane,” Harrison Kay said. “So if you order takeout and either hate the waste or would like for your food to come hot and fresh and not in flimsy packaging, definitely check us out.”