Restaurants switch to wooden cutlery

Mumbai: Following the plastic ban, restaurants across Mumbai have decided to switch from plastic cutlery such as straws, cups, spoons to wooden cutlery and paper straws. While some food outlets opted for paper straws, rest decided to not provide straws at all

AHAR- Indian Hotel and Restaurant Association has asked its members to refrain from using plastic bags for delivering food items and come up with alternatives to plastic. A hotel in Mulund east which is also a member of AHAR has been using corn-starch bags for delivering food items. “ We have also switched to wooden forks and spoons for deliveries. We also ask the customers whether they need cutleries, if they say yes only then we provide it to them,” said manager of the restaurant.

Meanwhile, few restaurants also stated that they are planning to levy packaging charges for deliveries. An extra Rs10 might be levied for providing food in biodegradable bags. While some restaurants have been using paper bags for delivering food, they claimed that it is difficult to do that during Monsoon. A manager from the restaurant in Dadar east stated, “The paper bags get wet during rains. We have to look for other alternatives.”