DFW Restaurant Week runs through Sept. 1, and EarthX is encouraging diners to “Go NOCO Loco!” during the event by bringing their own reusable to-go container or using a low-impact option.

EarthX is the world’s largest environmental expo, conference, and film festival that is held every year in Dallas.

[Photo: Courtesy EarthX]

DFW Restaurant Week is the largest culinary event in North Texas, and it offers diners special menus at more than 140 participating restaurants. EarthX is a sponsor of DFW Restaurant Week.

EarthX said that with roughly 90,000 North Texas residents making reservations during the event, the act of bringing your own reusable or low-impact container could have a significant impact.

“Taking our meals ‘to go’ in plastic containers has had serious consequences,” Karen Fleig, director of marketing and communications for EarthX, said in the release. “If each DFW Restaurant Week restaurant and dining patron committed to using biodegradable, compostable, or reusable containers, we could plant a seed that would influence others, making a huge difference in the long-term.”

EarthX pointed to these facts:

• The Great Pacific Garbage Patch between California and Hawaii is nearly the size of the state of Texas. 

• Single-use containers make up about 10 percent of all trash and less than 14 percent of it is recycled. 

• Single-use food and beverage packaging is one of the largest contributors to the 269,000 tons of plastic pollution in the rivers and oceans.

EarthX said it also is celebrating having struck out 1 million single-use plastic straws since launching its Strike Out Straws campaign at Earthx2018. Once thrown away, single-use plastic straws, which are made from petroleum, need more than 200 years to break down and add to plastic debris in landfills. 

EarthX said it is celebrating the 50th anniversary of Earth Day in 2020 by working toward a goal of no single-use plastic and styrofoam to-go containers.

READ NEXT ‘EarthX Can Be to Dallas, What SXSW is to Austin’

“It’s simple. Tell your server you have brought your own reusable container for your leftovers. Or, ask for one of the biodegradable, low-impact Go NOCO Loco! containers made of fully compostable and rapidly renewable sugarcane fibers,” Fleig said.

Many containers end up in landfills or the ocean

EarthX said that participating restaurants will offer Go NOCO Loco! biodegradable containers from EarthX partner CircleTerra, maker of eco-friendly food service ware such as plates, cups, bowls, take-out containers, napkins, and more.

A significant amount of plastic and Styrofoam for “to-go” containers  end up in oceans and landfills, EarthX said, and single-use containers make up roughly 10 percent of all trash. Less than 14 percent of plastic packaging is being recycled, the release said.

Single-use food and beverage packaging is among the biggest contributors to the 269,000 tons of plastic pollution that end up in the ocean, EarthX said. That can harm to climate, marine life, and ultimately our health, it said.

In the process, more than $11 billion worth of recyclable material is thrown away, EarthX said.

Get on the list.
Dallas Innovates, every day.

Sign up to keep your eye on what’s new and next in Dallas-Fort Worth, every day.