Takeout Solution: M’Porte

Disposable water bottles are a thing of the past. Many of us now own an array of reusable bottles, someinsulated, in metal, glass, with built-in straws or spouts, for coffee, water, for the car or the hike, etc. For an obscure reason, we still find it acceptable to pile up plastic and

Styrofoam containers for our takeout meals, knowing that most of them end up in the landfill after a single use. This leads to the well documented equation: landfill = methane emissions = global warming.

 

The sight of his takeout dinner hidden by a pile of plastic containers is what inspired Brian Macdonald to start M’Porte: a zero-waste takeout solution. It is a container exchange program that allows participating restaurants to serve takeout meals in sturdy, leakproof metal lunchboxes, that customers trade at any participating restaurant for their next takeout meal.

 

With the help of Jen Grove, from the Del Mar Village Association, Brian has reached out to several restaurants that are jumping into this earth-saving solution! Knowing that “compostable” containers are usually not composted, and recyclable not recycled, En Fuego, Viewpoint,

Americana, Beeside Balcony, and Elixir are participating, with new restaurants continuously joining the sustainable takeout experience!

 

How does it work?

 

– For the first time, one could order their container directly from mporteco.com, or simply call a participating restaurant and ask for their takeout meal to be served in a M’porte (“emporter” which means “to take with you” in French) Zero-Waste Takeout container.

 

– The one-time $25 cost of the container is added to your bill.

 

– Once you are done enjoying the meal, simply rinse the container, until you plan on a takeout dinner again!

 

– When ordering takeout from a participating restaurant again, mention that you will be trading a M’Porte container, and request to place your takeout order into a sanitized M’Porte container.

 

– Et voilà! You have successfully saved a container. You are part of the solution!

 

– Extra points for scanning the QR code of the M’Porte program on a sign near the cashier, which helps the program track how many times the containers are traded around town!

 

While the pandemic has slowed down the implementation, more and more restaurants are joining, just like En Fuego, because of the endless possibilities of reusable takeout containers. What is next for M’Porte? Brian plans on increasing container versatility towards welcoming more types of food. His ultimate goal: becoming the most effective reusable takeout container provider at reducing waste in the US. Who is in?