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Emil’s Burger & Breakfast
Located in Fruitvale Village, Emil’s Burger & Breakfast prides itself on the freshest ingredients, hand-selected by the owner daily and cooked fresh to order. They had been serving their customers on disposable paper and plastics. Now, people are noshing on their delicious burgers with reusable foodware and enjoying an elevated dining experience.
Five local Fruitvale restaurants — Emil’s Burger & Breakfast, Hogar Latino Panaderia Y Restaurant, La Torta Loca, Parra’s, and Powderface — teamed up to reduce single-use disposable waste by over 187,600 individual pieces and over 3,240 pounds annually. After an average payback period of 2.74 months, this group of restaurants will collectively be saving over $10,000 every year by purchasing fewer disposables — dramatically reducing plastic pollution in their operations, and providing real-time examples of businesses that are both eco-friendly and economical in the Fruitvale community. Read the full Fruitvale Community Restaurants Case Study here.
Packaging practices prior to ReThink Disposable:
Dine-in disposable foodware items included:
- 34 oz. Plastic bowls
- 7.75 In. Plastic straws
- 2 oz. Plastic sauce cups
- 20 oz. Paper cold cups
- 12 oz. plastic deli bowls
- 8 oz. Plastic deli bowl
- Small paper food boats
- Large paper food boats
Recommendations Implemented:
- 34 oz. Tempered glass bowls
- 8.5’’ Stainless steel straws
- 2 oz. Stainless steel sauce cups
- 22 oz. SAN reusable drink cups
- 16 oz. Stoneware bowls
- 8 oz. Porcelain bowls
- Porcelain plates
Before & After
Document
CS_Fruitvale_09.26.24.pdf
(4.41 MB)
Business Information:
Fruitvale Village
3301 E 12th St, #121
Oakland, CA 94601
United States
The Bottom Line
Emil’s Burger & Breakfast switched 100% of their dine-in disposables to reusable for their on-site guests, with a 2.6 month payback period.
$2,433
net annual savings
34,380
disposable items reduced per year
702 lbs
annual waste reduction
Thank you so much. We love everything. We have already started using everything, and it is all so nice. So much better than what we were using!
Reducing Single-Use Food Packaging
ReThink Disposable works with local governments, businesses and institutions, and consumers of single use food packaging to inspire a cultural shift away from single-use "throwaway" lifestyle.
Phone Canvass Community Organizer | Minnesota, Pennsylvania
Clean Water Action is currently hiring community organizers to call our existing members and develop long-term sustaining donors for Clean Water Action's environmental work. Our phone team educates members on our work, fundraises, and gets commitments to take action on current campaigns.
Field Canvass Organizer | Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania
Clean Water Action invites you to join our dynamic team as we open applications for Field Canvass Organizers. As a community organizer, you will collaborate closely with our professional outreach team to ignite meaningful change at the local, state, and national levels. Through engaging communities, educating the public, and building vital support, you will empower individuals to take action on crucial issues.
House Of Dim Sum
ReThink Disposable has long partnered with the City of San Francisco to help restaurants replace single-use foodware with cost-saving and planet-friendly reusable foodware. A recent champion is the House of Dim Sum in San Francisco’s Chinatown, which spent thousands of dollars weekly on disposable foodware.
After receiving technical assistance and fiscal support, the restaurant has eliminated 2.2 million disposable items every year. That’s more than seven tons of trash that won’t exist — the weight of a San Francisco cable car! An upfront investment of just $429 for durables will save $33,561 per year.
View the Case Study here (English) and here (Chinese).
Read more in The San Francisco Chronicle: Why San Francisco is spending $200,000 on dishware for restaurants
To learn more about our ReThink Disposable program, visit ReThinkDisposable.org.
Business Profile:
House of Dim Sum is located in San Francisco’s iconic Chinatown and specializes in, you guessed it, dim sum! Before working with SF Environment and ReThink Disposable, Ying Huang, the owner, spent thousands of dollars each week on disposable foodware to serve dine-in customers. After a visit from SF Environment’s outreach team, she learned that the ReThink Disposable program provides funds to switch from disposables to reusables for on-site dining. Huang joined the program — resulting in the elimination of unnecessary landfill waste and produced tremendous cost savings, which further supports House of Dim Sum as a cultural point of significance and source of nourishment for San Franciscans and Chinatown visitors.
Packaging practices prior to ReThink Disposable:
- Napkins automatically included with all orders
- Disposable hot cups
- Individually wrapped creamer
- Plastic forks and spoons
- 3 sizes of plastic clamshells,
paper boats, and deli containers
Recommendations Implemented:
- Napkins only upon request
- Stainless steel double-walled cups
- Carafe for bulk creamer
- Stainless steel utensils and teaspoons for stirrers
- Durable baskets and reusable plates
Before & After
Business Information:
735 Jackson St
San Francisco, CA 94133
United States
The Bottom Line
$429
upfront investment in reusable foodware
$33,561
annual savings after payback period
2,200,000
disposable items reduced per year
I encourage other businesses to work with ReThink Disposable and the City for the cost savings and to eliminate disposable items.
Reducing Single-Use Food Packaging
ReThink Disposable works with local governments, businesses and institutions, and consumers of single use food packaging to inspire a cultural shift away from single-use "throwaway" lifestyle.