By Nick Morrison

Some of our islands’ caterers have made the effort to go greener in order to help out our beleaguered environment. Our environment is seriously under threat right now we have the double whammy of wildfires in the Arctic tundra, bush fires in the Amazon and the wholesale destruction of parts of the Amazon by the right-wing government .

This micro survey is of my regular watering holes which have a Takeaway component to their trade.

My interest was first started when one of Leigh’s girls gave me my breakfast bacon roll in a paper napkin. I then spotted a burger box which was not made out of polystyrene . It turns out that Leigh has been using a range of biodegradable products for several months .

Some of her regulars from the Orkney Mens Shed are also are using refillable insulated beverage mugs . Leigh gives a discount to customers who are providing their own cup . I was minded here of the Pomona Cafe’s initiative on supplying refillable insulated coffee mugs which we reported on earlier . Pomona Leading the Way with Reusable Mugs

Next I spotted a biodegradable burger box in the Picky centre cafe .

Amy, of the Picky centre cafe was kind enough to show me a cupboard full of biodegradable catering supplies . They have been using these for some months . Next was St Colms Friday cafe which has also using biodegradable containers also for several months .

From the website of the Picky cafe supplier, vegware,  I found that the cutlery is made of poly lactic acid . This is compostable in an industrial composter like the Orkney Islands Council’s one . Our back garden compost heaps and bins are probably not sufficiently well-controlled for them to go there . I inspected the output of OIC’s compostor on two occasions and found no evidence of uncomposted cutlery . Big burger boxes however were made from bagasse , this is the pulp left from extracting sugar from sugar cane . These boxes will probably decompose in our back garden composters.

Scots Use 200 Million Takeaway Cups Each Year