The Balearic parliament will this year pass new legislation designed to reduce waste. The law, to give it its full title of waste and contaminated soil, will cover a range of items, among them plastic cups and cutlery, single-use ink cartridges, drinking straws, lollipop sticks, non-rechargeable lighters and supermarket single-use plastic bags.
A key part of the legislation will be the way in which it intends to tackle food waste. The government's director-general for environmental quality and waste, Sebastià Sansó, says that it is absurd that so much effort and money goes into food production, only for a great deal of it to end up in rubbish bins. With this in mind, bars and restaurants will be obliged to provide customers with leftovers so that they can take away food that they haven't eaten. Sansó notes that this often happens anyway, but that once the law is in place, it will have to happen. It would seem, however, that customers will still need to ask for a doggy bag. (Will the doggy bag need to be biodegradable?)
Another measure concerns supermarkets. They will be prohibited from throwing away food that is in good condition. There will also be collection of excess food from the likes of schools and hospitals. This will be used for social care centres.
Consumers are to be targeted as well. Sansó wants to change habits and so there are to be awareness-raising campaigns. An aspect of this is that consumers can buy more than they actually need, especially at festive times, don't use it and then chuck it out.
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I remember when I went to New York some forty years ago and went to get some Kentucky fried chicken,which had not yet reached the north west of England and I could not believe the huge box of chicken that I received,I could have got three meals out of it and I knew then why most Americans were so big,even now in the UK,portions have generally become bigger,reduce the portions and eat less and exercise more and that will help to reduce obesity.
Doggy bag sounds a good idea, but what happens to the bag and food once the diner has left the restaurant? When they will either throw it on the floor or in the rubbish bins along the roadside or perhaps wander back to their Hotel and throw it away there! Seems a circle will be formed, taking rubbish from one place to another, why not cut the portion size the first place? Plastic drinking vessels around the pool will require more thought, perhaps a returnable re-usable,no-plastic, non-glass type thingamajig when one is invented!!
Will be interesting to see how this legislation deals with the production line of food provided at the all inclusive hotels,plus the plastic cups provided for round the pool !
In my experience of eating in restaurants in Soller the portions aren’t big enough to feed a squirrel so the doggy bags won’t be appropriate there.
It will be interesting to see how the many "eat all you can" lunch buffets are going to handle this. I suspect the mandatory lunchtime doggy bags will be holding a lot of dinners---
So “ the chief insulting doggy bag habit “ is being made compulsory to reduce food waste. Great, so along with obese humans we will end up with obesity in dogs also. Just reduce portions in the first place, especially pizzas.