Frequently asked questions

What is this?

PlasticFreeRestaurants.org eliminates single-use petroleum-based plastic from restaurants and school cafeterias by subsidizing the purchase of reusable food ware.

In short, we pay restaurants and schools to stop using plastic.

How much is the subsidy?

In most cases, our subsidy is 100% of the cost of reusable items that do not contain virgin plastic. For reusable items that do contain virgin plastic, our subsidy is 25%, up to a cap of $1.00 per item. We no longer subsidize reusable plastic for schools, or for non-profits that primarily serve children. For details, please see our Subsidy page.

But if I switch to reusable items, then I have to hire someone to wash dishes, and that’s going to cost more money than the reusable forks and cups!

You may need to hire more staff, but it won’t cost you more money in the long run. The non-profit Rethink Disposable has published dozens of data-driven case studies showing that restaurants SAVE MONEY by switching to reusables even after accounting for increased labor, equipment, water, and electricity costs. You can read some of the case studies for free at this link. Additionally, we are aware of three such case studies for schools (which all come to the same MONEY-SAVING conclusion). Links to those studies are here.

How do I sign up my restaurant/school?

Please see our Subsidy page.

How do you handle take-out and delivery?

Sometimes, we don’t. Dine-in is the low-hanging fruit, and if that’s all we’re able to manage at a given restaurant, then that’s what we do. Either way, we’re eliminating single-use plastic. And we do not require restaurants to go 100% plastic-free in order to qualify for a subsidy. Waste-free delivery services have popped up in dozens of cities; check our Resources page to see if your restaurant is in a delivery area. Public schools are a favorite target of ours, in part because there is no take-out or delivery. 

Do I need to convert all of my plastic to reusables in order to qualify for a subsidy?

No. 

Why should I do this?

You will save money. Your customers (or students) will no longer be exposed to the toxins that leach from single-use plastic into their food and mouths. You will throw out considerably less garbage. You will keep oil in the ground. And you will make a tiny step toward combating climate change. 

I get the environmental angle, but does it make financial sense? 

Yes. Unequivocally. You WILL save money, and we can prove it. For starters, check out the dozens of restaurant case studies from our partners at ReThink Disposable. There are also three school case studies linked from our School Resources page. In every single case, the school or restaurant saved money even after accounting for increased labor costs, water and electricity usage, and sometimes even dishwasher purchases or kitchen retrofits. Don’t think those restaurants are similar to yours? Email contact@plasticfreerestaurants.org for a personalized evaluation of your needs, and an estimate of how many months it will take you to hit the break-even point. 

Can our town (or organization) promote your subsidies to our local restaurants (or schools)?

Yes! Please do! To that end, please help yourself to our folder of goodies: Pitch Decks, one-page flyers, PFR logos and graphics, etc. Please also check out our Resources page.

If I accept a subsidy, do I have to order my supplies from anyone specific?

If you are a restaurant or for-profit entity, then No. You retain 100% control over your ordering/inventory decisions, and may use any supplier(s) of your choosing.

If you are a school, or a kitchen that primarily serves children, then we require third-party lab testing of any product we subsidize. We have a very short list of approved products for schools on this page of our site. Schools that wish to order items not on that list must work with us to initiate lab tests on samples of those products. Contact us for more information.

What about reusable items that get lost, stolen, or broken?

On the one-year and two-year anniversaries of your subsidy from us, you may also request a “restocking” subsidy. For restaurants, we offer 10% of your original subsidy, or 20% if you compost your food waste. For schools, we offer 20% of your original subsidy, or 30% if you compost your food waste.

What’s the fine print?

• We currently subsidize up to three locations for a single restaurant company/chain.
• If a type of single-use item (e.g., plastic straw) or material (e.g., Styrofoam) has been outlawed by a restaurant’s municipality/county/state, then its replacement item will no longer qualify for a subsidy.
• To receive a subsidy, any restaurant that provides crayons to tables with kids must also sign up for Crayon Collection (which is free).
• Newly-opening restaurants are eligible, but their “baseline” single-use plastic costs will be estimated by PFR.org.
• We reserve the right to cap subsidies if the reusable products chosen by a subsidy recipient are considerably more expensive than a comparable substitute.
• We reserve the right to change the terms and parameters of the subsidies offered.

Do you subsidize restaurants switching to plastic-free delivery services?

We’ve attempted to do this in the past, without success. We’re still open to the idea though. Email us.

Where do you get your funding?

Donations and grants. Some of our top donors are listed here. We are also environmental partners of 1% for the Planet.

Are donations tax-deductible?

Yes. We are a 501(c)(3) registered charitable organization.

Where does my donated money actually go?

Toward the purchase of reusable replacements for the restaurants and schools. We are a 100% volunteer-driven organization. We pay zero salaries and zero rent, and have kept our overhead expenses under 6% to date.

Do you ask anything else of the restaurants and schools that receive subsidies?

We ask our subsidy recipients to follow us on social media, send us a few photos of their reusables “in action,” introduce us to a local press contact, and display our name and/or logo in at least one place (web site, menu, packaging, register, school menu, cafeteria poster, etc). Restaurants that give out crayons to kids are also required to join Crayon Collection, a free service that connects restaurants with schools in need of art supplies. That’s it.

Do you have a list of plastic-free restaurants?

Yep. Right here. Make sure to tell the restaurant how you found it!

What about compostable food ware? Isn’t stuff made from plants better than plastic?

Yes, to a point. But it’s very complicated…

IF your “compostable” take-out box (or fork, or cup) is certified compostable (and thus free of the chemical additive PFAS), and IF that take-out box makes it to an industrial composting facility instead of a landfill, and IF that composting facility accepts food ware of that type, then yes, it is a much better option than plastic. But that’s a lot of IFs.

To be clear, there are MANY companies that carry certified compostable products. Here’s a database of them. But…

Many non-certified compostable products contain PFAS, a chemical additive which acts like Teflon to create a barrier against moisture and grease. PFAS does not decompose under any conditions, and it has been shown to harm sperm production.

Also, much of the compostable food ware currently in use in the United States - certified or otherwise - ends up in landfills, where it generates the climate-warming gas methane. This is either because consumers who take the compostable products home don’t have composting options, or the restaurants that use them don’t contract with composting facilities instead of garbage haulers, or the composting facilities have stopped accepting plant-based food ware for fear of PFAS contamination (which makes their resulting soil unusable). And while it’s true that the manufacture of petroleum-based plastic items generally involves more toxic chemicals than the manufacture of plant-based items, the carbon footprint of a compostable item can sometimes be worse than that of a plastic item if both end up in a landfill.

PFR does not financially support switches from single-use plastic to other forms of single-use products. However, we do subsidize switches from PFAS-laden compostables to reusables.

For more information about PFAS in foodware, check out the Center for Environmental Health’s infographic Healthier Food Serviceware Choices or the “Costs of PFAS Contamination” write-up from Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families.

Geez. How can I make sure that the plant-based single-use products I’m ordering are certified compostable?

In theory, it should say as much on the item itself. But this is not always 100% reliable, especially since certification standards were changed in 2020 (and not all compostable manufacturers got the memo). To be certain, simply enter the item’s SKU number here or look up products by category and/or manufacturer here. If an item appears on either site, then it’s certified compostable and - by definition - free of added PFAS. Another great resource is the wordy “Database of Single-use Food Serviceware Products Tested for Fluorinated Additives” from our amazing partners at the Center for Environmental Health.

I’m a person, not a restaurant. Where can I buy plastic-free products for my home?

Check out our Resources for Consumers page!

What’s so bad about plastic?

Quite simply, plastic is a scourge. Producing it causes air pollution. Disposing of it responsibly is nearly impossible in most cases. Of the seven numbered types of “recyclable” plastic, only two - #1 and #2 - have any chance of being recycled in most parts of the United States. The National Geographic Society estimates that only about nine percent of all plastic ever made has likely been recycled. We are now producing nearly 400 million tons of plastic every year, half of which is for single use. Worldwide, the amount of single-use plastic manufactured every year is still increasing. Half of all plastics ever made have been produced since 2005. By 2050, the oceans will contain more plastic (by weight) than fish. Plastic debris causes the deaths of more than a million seabirds and more than 100,000 marine mammals every year; scientists have even identified a new disease they’re calling Plasticosis which causes cellular damage in birds that ingest plastic. Plastics - including those advertised as BPA-free, leach chemicals that have been shown to adversely affect pituitary systems, reduce testosterone levels, and increase the incidence of breast cancer. The American Academy of Pediatrics released a study in 2018 stating that chemicals used in food contact materials “may contribute to disease and disability” and that “children may be particularly susceptible to the effects of these compounds.” In 2020, the Endocrine Society stated that “Plastics pose threat to human health.” The United Nations Environment Programme estimated in 2006 that every mile of ocean contains 46,000 pieces of floating plastic. A Columbia University study published in January 2024 found that each liter of bottled water contains more than 100,000 individual plastic micro- and nano-particles. A University of Nebraska-Lincoln study found that microwaving a plastic baby bottle releases billions of nanoplastics into the liquid contained in the bottle. A 2019 study estimated that the average person worldwide consumes about 2,000 pieces of microplastic - amounting to roughly a credit card worth of plastic - every week! An October 2021 study from Beyond Plastic found that as of 2020, the US plastics industry is responsible for at least 232 million tons of CO2e gas emissions per year, an amount equivalent to the average emissions from 116 average-sized (500-megawatt) coal-fired power plants. The US plastic industry’s contribution to climate change is on track to exceed that of coal-fired power in the United States by 2030. It’s expensive to deal with too: It is estimated that the US spent $2.3 billion on plastic waste disposal in 2019.

Removing plastic from the consumer waste stream positively impacts the health of humans, animals, and the planet. (Tired of boring statistics? Take it from John Oliver.)

What’s even worse is that your tax dollars are paying for the manufacture of more petroleum-based plastic. In 2016, the US government gave fossil fuel companies $4.6 billion in subsidies. Worldwide, plastic cutlery alone is a $2.6 billion business.

By donating to PlasticFreeRestaurants.org (and writing it off on your taxes!) you can instead put tax-free dollars toward eliminating petroleum-based plastic.

But…can’t plastic be recycled?

Actually, no. Plastic recycling is largely a myth propogated by the oil and chemical industries. Don’t believe us? Listen to this.

Even in cases where plastic recycling is viable, it isn’t happening. Plummeting oil prices have made virgin plastic less expensive than recycled plastic.

And where plastic recycling is happening, a new study suggests that it could be creating as much as 29,000 dump trucks of microplastic remains in waste water, per year, in the United States alone.

Also try testing out your knowledge about what goes in your recycling bin with this short quiz. We suspect you’ll be surprised. We were.

What’s the difference between chemical recycling and mechanical recycling?

In a nutshell, mechanical recycling is better for the environment. Unfortunately, most investment in plastic recycling these days is going to chemical recycling facilities. Here’s a good primer.

Is there a connection between plastic pollution and racial justice?

Yep. Fossil-fueled power plants and refineries are disproportionately located in black neighborhoods, and people of color disproportionately bear climate impacts. Hospitality industry workers are also paid sub-minimum wages in many states, an issue being tackled by our friends at High Road Restaurants and One Fair Wage.

PlasticFreeRestaurants.org strives to reflect the diversity of our country in all of its efforts, starting by partnering with restaurants in neighborhoods across all demographics.

Still need more reasons to go Reusable?

• Reuse can save 2% of the remaining carbon budget.
• Reusables have a 50% savings in GHG emissions over single-use plastic bottles.
• The production of the plastic foodware items used in the United States is estimated to contribute 1.3 million tons of CO₂ emissions annually, while the paper items require an estimated 3.4 million trees each year.
• The $19B that foodservice businesses spend to purchase single-use items supports the continued development and processing of petrochemicals as well as the harvesting of trees for low-value, single-use products

Couldn’t our municipal, state, and federal governments just ban single-use plastic?

They sure could. France already did. As of July 2018, more than 90 countries have imposed bans on the manufacture, import, and/or sale of plastic bags. Unfortunately, the USA and Canada are behind the curve.

Call your congressperson or your local city council and start a conversation! Trust us, there’s nothing we’d like more than for PlasticFreeRestaurants.org to shift our entire focus to reusables (or to become utterly unnecessary!).

To see which cities, counties, and states have enacted bans on certain types of plastic and styrofoam food ware, check out Surfrider Foundation’s US Plastics Policy Map.

Aren’t there other non-profit organizations doing stuff like this?

RethinkDisposable.org has been flipping dine-in restaurants from single-use plastic to resuables for more than a decade; we have partnered with them to build on their work. Center for Environmental Health has also worked to switch dozens of public schools from single-use plastic to reusables, and we have partnered with them on many of those. Some other non-profits aimed at plastic are focused on cleanup. We wanted to work on the source, rather than the aftermath. Many other plastic-focused non-profits work on education and advocacy. While we don't discount the need for education, we wanted to do something more pro-active with concrete results.

Do you subsidize dishwashers?

No. We’re only able to cover the costs of the reusable food ware. But we’re working on a partnership with one of the major dishwasher manufacturers that could potentially save any public school in America $3K on a new purchase. For both restaurants and schools, there are often city or state funds earmarked for dishwashers and/or kitchen upgrades that result in less plastic waste. Contact your local and/or state representatives to find out.

My school is switching from individual milk cartons to a milk dispensing machine. Can you help us with that?

In theory, yes. In practice, probably not. The individual milk cartons we all grew up with are primarily made of paper, but they contain thin linings of polyethylene. Because of this, they qualify for our subsidy program. Unfortunately, the milk dispensing machines that are replacing these cartons in some schools use disposable five-gallon plastic bags to hold the milk. Ugh. It is true that these machines greatly reduce both milk waste and overall landfill waste produced at school cafeterias, but these are not our mandates at Plastic Free Restaurants. We’re here to eliminate plastic, and replacing every 80 thin polyethylene liners with one thick plastic bladder is not accomplishing that. Once someone starts selling a keg-style milk dispenser (or some other reusable/circular system), we will happily help schools switch away from single-use cartons. Until then, we’re not able to help with this.

My favorite restaurant is plastic-free, but I don’t see it on your site!

Please email us and let us know!

Are you focused on a specific city or state?

No. We were founded in Los Angeles, but our Board of Directors has members across the United States, and we aim to go where we can do the most good. As of December 2023, we have subsidized schools and restaurants in ten states (CA, WA, OR, MA, CT, NY, WI, NV, NJ, and KS). Please email us your suggestions.

How can I help?

• Donate
• Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Youtube.
• Join our mailing list for (infrequent) updates about our progress.
• Volunteer, either to recruit restaurants or schools in your area, or to help us with admin tasks.
• Email us and let us know about plastic-free restaurants that aren’t yet listed on our site.
• Tell your friends about us!