Takeout Without

"You aren't really going to, are you?" my partner is looking at the pile of reusable plastic containers I've just pulled out of a bag in the back seat.

"They don't mind," I assure him as we enter Broadway Station Sushi, "I've done it here before."

He looks embarrassed, but I am not easily deterred. We place our takeout order at the counter and I hand over the pile of containers. The woman behind the cash register doesn't even give us a weird look as she passes them to the sushi chef along with our order.

"OK, that was alright," my partner concedes as we head back to the car with our containers of food neatly stacked in a fabric grocery bag.

Though we try to cook at home most of the time - my partner is a talented cook who doesn't wince when I announce we've got mushrooms, ginger, and tofu in the house; can't he make something of them - we are also busy and do sometimes grab food to go. More and more, we've noticed how quickly the garbage can mount up. We are helped by the fact that Vancouver now allows pizza boxes to be recycled, but that doesn't help with our sushi habit.

We started cutting back our waste by declining all extraneous items when picking up or having delivery: no chopsticks, napkins, soy sauce packets, etc. Now we've moved to bringing our own containers to use as doggy bags when eating out (Anton's on Hastings didn't flinch when we asked for our leftovers in our own containers) and when getting takeout. Most restaurants are pretty good about this; my favourite food stand in the market at Granville Island - Curry 2 U: Indian Comfort Food - will even sell you a reusable "tiffin" which you can get refilled at a discount. Bring a fork and cloth napkin, and you are ready for a waste-free lunch.

We're not the only ones thinking about this, obviously. The Takeout Without website describes their creed as: ReFuse Unnecessary Stuff, ReTake Your Own Reusables, and ReConsider Your Habits. I follow their Twitter stream (takeoutwout) for tips and encouragement.

I did notice that Takeout Without's restaurant "participating restaurants" page is still empty, but I plan to check back. What other Vancouver area restaurants keep the waste down, or at least make it easy for patrons to reduce their unnecessary garbage? If you know one, please tell us!