Warwick Mayor Newhard sends best practices environmental letter to all local restaurants

There are instances where food establishments will need to use disposables.
But Mayor Michael Newhard recently sent a best practices letter to the village restaurants, urging owners to always use reusable service ware, and to encourage customers to bring their own.
"We all want a clean, healthy environment, and a thriving business community," he wrote. "In that spirit Sustainable Warwick has collaborated with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to offer some 'best practice' suggestions for our Village of Warwick food."
Preventing waste in the first place
He went on to explain that disposal of single-use plastics is an enormous economic and environmental problem globally and that Warwick should lead in curbing dangerous and destructive practices whenever possible.
"Cost savings and reduced impact on the environment are best achieved," wrote Newhard, "when waste is prevented in the first place. Please consider reusable and refillable serviceware whenever possible."
He also added that some compostable items are actually impregnated with persistent toxic fluorinated compounds and suggested contacting Sustainable Warwick, which has done research into several product lines that conform to environmentally sound specifications.
Sustainable Warwick
"The reason that Mayor Newhard did not simply suggest to the restaurants that they use less plastics and disposables," said Julia Calderon of Sustainable Warwick, "is that many products out there that present themselves as environmentally sound are not. For example many paper products are coated with plastic, and certain popular cardboard products called 'Bagasse' are impregnated with fluoride compounds which are toxic and can get into our food. And compost piles and non compostable utensils end up overwhelming our landfills and do eventually get into our waterways and food chain."
For additional information visit Sustainable Warwick at http://sustainablewarwick.org.