[r00fus]

What we started doing is a) ordering out from restaurants less b) saving those plastic takeout boxes and reusing them for leftovers when we do go visit (we keep them in our car trunk) c) bringing our own reusable utensils for those restaurants that still serve plastic utensils (fast food usually) - easy to wipe down & wash.

Not an exhaustive list but a good start for ideas on how to reduce without hampering your lifestyle too much.

[bunderbunder]

We've also switched back to only ordering takeout from places that use more sustainable takeout containers. Those plastic dishes are reusable, but our need for them is not great enough to justify accumulating more than a few. And as soon as you surpass your need, they instantly flip from being reusable containers to being just about the most wasteful form of disposable food packaging imaginable.

Compare with what takeout was like in the 1990s and early 2000s, when it was accepted that only some restaurants and cuisines were appropriate for delivery and takeout. Pizza boxes, deli paper and cardboard clamshell boxes are biodegradeable and industrially compostable. Foiled paper like McDonald's would use has to go to the landfill, but at least there's arguably nothing horrible in it. Oyster pails like Chinese takeout restaurants used to use is probably plastic lined, but plastic lined paper is at least a lot less plastic than the plastic dishes.

[infecto]

The issue today with most of those sustainable takeout containers is they are lined with PFAS.

Not true for everything but the vast majority are.

[r00fus]

Looks like this will be changing for the better soon: https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-indu...

Even plastic-backed paper (ie, not PFAS) is much better than a fully plastic container, so I support his.

[bunderbunder]

True.

Consumer Reports did some testing on this, writeup here: https://www.consumerreports.org/health/food-contaminants/dan...

It's from a couple years ago now, so individual results might be out of date.

[everdrive]

This is true, and because of this we eat out as little as possible. People just won't given up convenience, no matter the cost to health.

[arresin]

Reusing plastic increases the pthalate exposure. Especially cheap, anonymous plastic. It is better in a landfill.