Ocean Basket in drive to reduce single-use plastics
BRING your own takeaway containers, says South Africa’s biggest seafood restaurant chain, Ocean Basket, in its endeavour to create “more responsible Ocean Citizens”.
Ocean Basket has come under fire from Greenpeace Africa for not doing enough to reduce its plastic waste footprint. But Ocean Basket, which has a significant stake in maintaining an ocean that is healthy and abundant, reckons that eliminating single-use plastics is easier said than done.
“We began working on an alternative to plastic straws in August 2016, long before it was a popular move in South Africa,” said Ocean Basket marketing director Jean Sloane.
“At that time we could not find viable alternatives and so began a round of research in-store. Our findings were that while people were receptive to the idea, it took considerable explaining (many were completely unaware of the straw issue) and then many customers still demanded a straw for milkshakes etc, especially for children,” said Sloane.
So Ocean Basket decided to stop offering straws, except on demand.
“We spent marketing budget on offering information about straws and spent time training waiters on questions and answers around straws. Bear in mind we are talking almost 200 stores and training is not an overnight process,” said Sloane.
She said biodegradable straws were being introduced.
“We have had to source them internationally and these completely biodegradable straws come at a massively increased cost,” said Sloane.
She said Ocean Basket could not force its franchisees to use the more expensive straws.
She said Ocean Basket had also spent the last year developing alternative takeaway packaging.
“Unfortunately our first round failed as the oil content leaked through the packaging. But we have not given up and we are continuing to research alternatives. Fish, prawn, and calamari takeaways were not as simple as a burger,” said Sloane.
In the meantime, Ocean Basket is asking customers to bring their own bags to take home left-overs or takeaways.
“We are also looking at ways to tackle the use of single-use plastic cool drink bottles,” said Sloane.
“We are working on this constantly, but it is not an overnight process and customers are very resistant. This move involves changing mindsets and long-formed habits – of both franchisees and customers – and we all know how hard it is to break habits.”