April 6, 2021

Madame Speaker Nancy Pelosi
1236 Longworth H.O.B.
Washington, DC 20515

U.S. Senator Charles Schumer
322 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510

Dear Madame Speaker Pelosi and Senator Schumer:

We are a group of executives representing restaurants and food service organizations across the U.S. We urge you to pass the Break Free from Plastic Pollution Act (Senate Bill 3263, HR 5845) into law to protect human health and stem the flood of plastic into marine and terrestrial environments.

As restaurant executives and food system leaders, we believe the BFFPPA benefits our industry by:

1. Studying and piloting Reuse and Refill programs for retail goods and food delivery.
The BFFPPA rightly focuses on preventing plastic waste in the first place, as opposed to relying solely on waste processing. Several cafes, restaurants and startups are operating or offering reuse and refill programs. These include the restaurant chain Just Salad, Blue Bottle Coffee, the food delivery platform DeliverZero, and the reusables-focused logistics provider Dispatch Goods. These and countless other examples show that reusables are scalable, safe, and embraced by the public.

2. Curbing unnecessary single-use plastic.
The BFFPPA would prohibit restaurants from providing plastic straws and disposable utensils unless explicitly requested by the customer. This would level the playing field for restaurants who want to implement such practices currently but hesitate to do so because of competitive pressures. In addition, this commonsense waste reduction measure would save restaurants millions of dollars annually in foodware costs.

3. Standardizing composting and recycling across states.
Today, recycling and composting infrastructure and capabilities vary across municipalities and states, sometimes dramatically. This fragmented system makes it difficult for restaurants to source takeout and delivery packaging that is uniformly recyclable or compostable across the markets in which they operate. Standardized composting and recycling would make it easier for restaurants to achieve zero-waste goals and reduce their carbon footprint.

4. Discouraging the use of disposable takeout bags.
By banning plastic carryout bags and imposing a $0.10 tax on paper carryout bags, this legislation would help to accelerate the adoption of commonsense behaviors -- like bringing a reusable bag when picking up a food order.

We are writing to you at a difficult time for the restaurant industry, which is still recovering from the devastating economic effects of the COVID pandemic. We believe that overall, the economic effect of the BFFPPA should be positive because it reduces consumption of single-use items -- for which restaurants bear the financial cost.

The BFFPPA would accelerate our respective companies’ efforts to reduce the waste and carbon footprint of our industry and create dining experiences that are healthy for people and planet. Supported by this legislation, our sustainability efforts would have a much larger impact.

We urge you to enact this important legislation into law.

Sincerely,

Sandra Noonan
Chief Sustainability Officer, Just Salad
New York, NY

Eve Turrow-Paul
Founder & Executive Director, Food for Climate League
Evanston, Illinois

Anthony Myint
Founder, Mission Chinese Food
San Francisco, CA

Hady Kfoury
Founder, Naya
New York, NY

Lindsey Hoell
Chief Executive Officer, Dispatch Goods
San Francisco, CA

Anya Ranganathan
Founder, Bad Apple Produce
East Rutherford, NJ

Sophie Egan
Founder, Full Table Solutions
Boulder, CO

Spencer Rubin
Founder & CEO, Melt Shop
New York, NY

Michael Cyr
Co-Founder, Cup Zero
Ridgewood, NJ

Ali Cammisa
Sustainability Coordinator, Cali
Tampa, FL

Luke Holden, Founder & CEO
Ben Conniff Co-Founder, Chief Innovation Officer
Luke's Lobster
Portland, Maine

Ross Mackay
CEO, Daring Foods
Los Angeles, CA

Jonathan Netzky
CEO, Local Alternative Foods
Flagstaff, Arizona

Lauren Sweeney
Co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer
DeliverZero
New York, NY

Jess Page
Co-founder, Open Water
Chicago, IL

Brian Owens
CEO, Crave Fishbar
New York, NY

Mladen Gajic
CEO, PlasticScore, Inc.
Denver, CO

Kelly Freeman
President, CircleTerra
Garland, TX

Caroline Vanderlip
Founder & CEO, Re:Dish Co
Washington, CT

Jonas Beer
Head of International Expansion, reCIRCLE AG
Bern, Switzerland

Samantha Langevin
American Flatbread, Middlebury Hearth
Middlebury, VT

Anna Knoebel-Lyu
Summer Salt NYC

Antoine Ambert
Senior Director, Sustainability
Alter Eco
San Francisco, CA

Lauren Storeby
Owner, Snack Attack Specialty Sandwiches & Brews
Fort Collins, CO

Marijo Lewandowski
Consultant, Creative Constructs LLC
Glendale, NY

Kristin Cole
Personal Chef
Chapel Hill, NC

OTHER SIGNATORIES

Amanda Baltazar
Journalist
Anacortes, WA

Sylvia Ng, RDN
University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
Boulder, CO

Robert Bogatin
Recovery Basin
Longmont, CO

Cassia Patel
Program Director, Oceanic Global
New York City, NY

Marco Palladino
Jersey City, NJ,07306

Shruti Parikh
Boston, MA

Amy Kull
Founder & CEO
Marin Restorative Communications
Nevada City, CA

Karen Taylor
Freelancer, Food Scientist
Old Lyme, CT

Mark D. Wolf & Kristia Janowski
Co-Leads, International Society of Sustainability Professionals - NYC Chapter
New York, NY