Making Plastic Utensils Obsolete – One Co-op at a Time
Food cooperatives, here and around the world, share a common goal of nurturing our planet as well as the people who shop their stores. Reducing plastic waste is a critical area in which grocery co-ops can impact climate change. An initiative to make plastic utensils obsolete has taken root and grown at food co-ops across the US.
In 2019, our friends at Moscow Food Co-op in Idaho took a bold step—they replaced their disposable takeout utensils with Sustainable Silverware. Their borrow-return silverware was a great success! Not only did the program eliminate plastic utensils, but it also became a model for other co-ops to follow, including Weaver Street Market.
In 2023, Weaver Street Market launched its Bring It Back Utensils. In the first year of the program,
we kept approximately 344,000 disposable utensils out of the waste stream and saved over $13,600!
In 2024, two more food co-ops switched to reusable silverware—Briar Patch Food Co-op in California and Ashland Food Co-op in Oregon. In Briar Patch Food Co-op’s first year, they kept approximately 226,840 disposable utensils out of the waste stream and saved $12,000. In Ashland Food Co-op’s first year, they kept approximately 75,000 disposable utensils out of the waste stream and saved $10,000!
By the end of 2025, three additional food co-ops switched from disposable takeout utensils to reusable silverware: Community Food Co-op-Bellingham in Washington; Lexington Co-op Markets in New York; and Skagit Valley Food Co-op in Washington.
We now have seven food cooperatives demonstrating to their communities and other food co-ops how a reuse system can successfully replace plastic disposables!
