Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin once said, "tell me what you eat and I'll tell you who you are." However, unless you're into 18th-century French history, you're probably more familiar with the old adage, "you are what you eat." Both stress the importance of what people are putting on their plates, but in terms of environmental consciouness, where you eat can have as much of an impact as what you eat.
Case in point, the decisive moment of what to eat for dinner: do you cook, order take-out, or dine out? For those looking to minimize their impact on the environment, there are options to go green across all three fronts.
Restaurants tend to be pretty terrible offenders in terms of environmental friendliness with 10 percent and 25 percent of commercially prepared food that gets wasted annually. There's also the inefficient energy usage that's costing the commercial food service sector 80 per cent of the $10 billion dollars in annual spending, according to a report by Pacific Gas & Electric's Food Service Technology Center.
And it's this hemorrhaging of cash that explains the rash of reforms the sector's taken on in the last few years. While some are more apparent to patrons, like straws made from biodegradable paper, others can be found behind the scenes, like low-flow valves in the sprayers that pre-rinse dishes.
SEE: The best and worst take-out containers for the environment. Story continues below:
The Best And Worst Take-Out Containers
Styrofoam(01 of10)
Open Image ModalStyrofoam, it's here to stay. Literally. Not because it's non-recyclable but because there's no incentive to recycle it since it costs more than it saves. The result is masses of Styrofoam that cost 2,593 litres of oil to produce per ton with nothing to do but sit in landfills over the next 500 years. (credit:Shutterstock)
Plastic Containers(02 of10)
Open Image ModalPlastic Bags(03 of10)
Open Image ModalCardboard Boxes(04 of10)
Open Image ModalThe trick with recycling cardboard is that it can't be soiled with food -- that's kind of tough when you're eating food right out of it. The issue lies in the fact that most recycling plants can't handle a mixture of food and paper. Containers that are used to carry foods like fruit are usually fine to recycle though. (credit:Shutterstock)
Bio-Products(05 of10)
Open Image ModalAluminum Foil(06 of10)
Open Image ModalThere's lots to like about aluminium. It's light and multi-purpose, extending its use to areas other than food. The downside is it takes energy to melt down aluminium scraps, but those scraps can used to make anything from aluminium cans to bike frames. (credit:Shutterstock)
Recycled Paper Products(07 of10)
Open Image ModalTo reduce, reuse and recycle means using less natural resources, but not all products are recycled equally. Only those bearing the "made from 100% recycled material" sign means no new trees have been cut down in order to make the container. (credit:Shutterstock)
Edible Containers Made From Food(08 of10)
Open Image ModalNow you can have your bowl AND eat it too! The use of food as tableware isn't something new -- it's actually a practice that dates back to medieval times, when royalty would use stale bread as plates and silverware was saved for carrying out courses. Nowadays, you can see edible containers in the form of taco shells, birds nests and types of squash. (credit:Shutterstock)
Inedible Containers Made From Food(09 of10)
Open Image ModalWhile nowhere as delicious as their edible counterparts, inedible containers like banana leaves and corn husks score points for their portability. And because these containers are natural, they compost more easily than synthetic products. (credit:Shutterstock)
Bring Your Own Container(10 of10)
Open Image ModalGive someone a fish and they'll eat for a day, but teach a person to fish and they'll eat forever -- or so the saying goes. Now, give that same person a container to bring to a favourite lunch spot, and they can eat all the take-out fish they want AND minimize environmental waste by using a reusable option. And it's not just Tupperware -- stainless steel and glass are other potential options for containers. (credit:Shutterstock)
And by going green, it looks like restaurants can earn more green.
In 2011, the National Restaurant Association reported that 65 percent of restaurant operators had recycling programs in place -- and for good reason. Sixty per cent of consumers prefer restaurants that recycle and 51 per cent of diners will even pay more to eat at an eco-friendly restaurant.
Restaurants may take the cake for waste, but ordering take-out doesn't fall far behind. While more eco-friendly containers are becoming available, the volume of take-out containers that end up in the trash is causing trouble for many North American cities. It's also paved the way for some states to ban Styrofoam take-out containers altogether, because of the time-consuming and expensive recycling process.
While cooking at home may be the most environmentally friendly option for eating, it also produces a fair amount of waste, though significantly less compared to dining out and take-out. For energy usage, it's the best of the three, thanks to its smaller scale. And for the time-pressed at-home chefs, there's more good news. According to a Swedish study, there's little to no difference in buying pre-packaged food compared with cooking a meal from scratch.