An Island restaurant program aimed at reducing waste has landed a $5,000 dollar state grant to expand its services and to launch a new mobile app.
Pitched as an environmentally friendly food program, Island Eats provides stainless steel takeout containers to members grabbing food to go from certain Island restaurants. The new app will make it easier for users to sign up, and its founder says it will streamline the program.
The app will also help track all the waste that is kept out of landfills and the waste stream.
“It has really been a community effort,” Island Eats founder Jessica Mason told The Times. “People rallied around the idea, and we’re really excited to expand this year. And we’re really grateful for the support.”
The grant was provided by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection through its Reduce, Reuse, Repair Micro-grant program, created to reduce waste.
Islanders looking to become a member can download the new app through the Boston-based reuse company Usefull, which Mason says has helped prevent about 120,000 takeout containers from getting into landfills.
Island Eats is partnering with Usefull to customize and license the program for use on the Vineyard.
The new app will be available on Earth Day on Saturday, April 22. Also, they’ll be launching a new, reusable drinking-cup program in June.
Island Eats originally launched in May of last year as a way to cut down on waste, specifically takeout containers. Mason said most to-go containers generally end up in landfills and are often overflowing in curbside waste bins. Even though restaurants on the Island use compostable containers, they typically weren’t recycled because there’s no Island compost facility where they can go. Mason says that the compostable containers can have PFAS in them, so they aren’t accepted at the Island’s only large-scale compost facility.
The idea behind Island Eats is to provide reusable, stainless-steel bowls. Similar to a library or an “old-school Netflix,” members pay into a system that allows them to use the bowls at member restaurants to replace the to-go containers.
When she launched Island Eats last year, she said that it took off to the point where there was a waiting list for members.
But the old system relied on physical cards that customers had to use when exchanging the bowls. Mason says the new app will be much more user-friendly and more streamlined.
Currently, there are 12 member restaurants involved, but three more are likely coming on before the end of May. About 200 residents are participating, but Mason expects that to grow to 400.
In its first year, she says that Island Eats has kept 600 containers out of the waste stream.
Also new this year, the program can be free to use. As part of the free program, users will have to return the stainless steel containers to a participating restaurant within 24 hours of getting food; users that pay into the program will have a week to return the bowls.
Mason says that especially exciting with the new app, users will be able to track how much CO2 they’ve kept out of the atmosphere, how much water has been saved, and how much material they’ve kept out of the waste stream personally. But they’ll also be able to see how much the Island Eats initiative has saved in total.