It is time for Toledo to “Do Better.”
Northwest Ohio is currently seeing a revitalization. We are growing. People are proud to live here and proud to call it home. With a growing sense of community, though, we need to make sure that we are taking care of our communal spaces and our communal resources. This year, Leadership Toledo and Keep Toledo/Lucas County Beautiful are partnering to launch a Sustainable Restaurant Program as part of Restaurant Week Toledo.
So, you may see some changes this year at your favorite restaurants. This may include less single-use plastic items, no straws unless you specifically ask for them, compostable products, to-go orders not in plastic bags and better options for recycling.
Please be patient with our restaurants as they implement some of these new initiatives. Or even better — show them that you support these efforts! Each restaurant will receive a “Sustainable Leaf” rating of 1 through 5. As you choose which restaurants you visit this Restaurant Week, use the SORT function to find those locations that are making efforts to be more sustainable.
The Facts
- Food waste has grown by 204% since the 1960s. On average, Americans throw away 40% of their food.
- 250 million tons of trash is generated each year in the United States.
- About 1 million plastic bags are used every minute.
- The average American throws away about 185 pounds of plastic per year. This includes 35 billion plastic water bottles.
- 2500 metric tons of plastic flows into Lake Erie every year.
- There is an estimated 50 billion pieces of litter along roads and waterways in the United States.
- We consume about a credit card’s worth of plastic each week through what we eat and drink, and 93% of all bottled water contains microplastics.
