Everyday, thousands of single-use plastic takeaway boxes are used by restaurants and cafes around Australia. These plastic boxes eventually find their way into landfills, something that Pankaj Sharma, Co-Founder of Toast My Curry, is aiming to change, one curry at a time.
Toast My Curry is a suburban food business operating out of its own quirky upcycled warehouse in East Victoria Park. They plan to reduce their dependence on single-use plastic takeaway containers with a more sustainable, multi-use container through their ContainersForCurry program.
The program, which takes inspiration from the State Government’s backed ContainersForChange program, encourages its loyal customer base to bring their own containers on the first Wednesday of every month and fill it with curries by weight. Containers can buy meat curry and/or vegan curry along with sides like flavoured Basmati Rice, Naan and Pappadum – all in their own containers.
Speaking to //SN, Pankaj notes that being in the food business has made the team “very mindful” of the amount of waste that occurs with these single-use containers and he hopes that this initiative will trigger a larger response from the community to play their part in helping phase out the food industry’s reliance on single-use plastics.
We are very mindful of our waste and sustainability as a food business. Since we moved to the new location a year ago, we’ve seen a big increase in the number of takeaways and because of that, the number of single-use plastic containers used.
The idea came to us when we were looking at ways to reduce our wastefulness. Like how you use your own cup for coffee takeaways at cafes, the same principle applies for curry, but with your own container.
Pankaj Sharma, Toast My Curry Co-Founder
The first trial run of the initiative was held on 4 August which received overwhelming encouraging and positive reception from the community. Over 100 patrons and Toast My Curry saved just over 150 single-use takeaway boxes from going to a landfill in one day. Though the number seems small, it is a start of a growing movement.
Toast My Curry is looking at expanding this initiative to twice a month, depending on positive customer feedback.
The next ContainersForCurry is scheduled to be held on Wednesday, 1 September 2021 from 3pm to 7pm at their warehouse space in East Victoria Park on 11 Milford Street. The special curry for the day is Chicken Green Masala and Mushroom Curry (which is vegan). The curries will be priced at $2.50/100gm, with a minimum order of 100gm.
You can pre-book your curry for 1 September by sending a message to Toast My Curry on their Facebook page or by sending them an e-mail – [email protected] before the day.
Come on down and support your local community!
