Packing Pinch

When will it get easier to find to-go containers?

Among the many (many!) headaches operators are experiencing, container shortages top the list. This started in 2020 when restaurants all shifted to to-go mode simultaneously, but it has hardly abated. In October, Nation’s Restaurant News reported that 52 percent of polled operators had experienced either unavailability or shortages of their preferred packaging. (And as far as branded goods go, you can forget about those entirely for the foreseeable future.) As restaurants have scrambled to assemble a workable supply of boxes, cups, lids, and everything else, the pre-pandemic focus on compostable or environmentally friendly items has dipped significantly.

Which leads us to…the Green Solution.