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As single-use plastics vanish, how will restaurants have to adapt their takeout?

The Big Story
The Big Story
Episode • Jan 6, 2023 • 22m

This year marks the beginning of a delayed phase-out of single-use plastics, mandated by Canada's federal government. As the rules change over the coming months, restaurants are trying to figure out what to do—with plastic cutlery, plastic bags and most importantly with the takeout containers themselves.

Over decades, plastic takeout containers have been adapted to hundreds of different meals, from soups, to burgers, curry dishes and products that must stay really hot or really cold. So now, they're experimenting, and you might find your food looking different from one week to the next as they hunt down solutions. So what will the end result be? Can restaurants afford it? And ... will any of this really make a difference to the glut of plastic clogging the planet?

GUEST: Rosa Saba, business reporter, The Canadian Press

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The Big Story • As single-use plastics vanish, how will restaurants have to adapt their takeout? • Listen on Fountain