Pay more for takeaways in reusable containers

Mumbai: From Saturday, pay Rs 10 to Rs 20 more for takeaways and home delivery of liquid food items such as soups, gravies, chutneys and coffee from restaurants in the city.
Restaurant owners will make you pay for every reusable plastic container; every container must announce its purpose—”for reuse”— on its body in bold leterring.
Meanwhile, chutneys and sauces will get thicker so that they can even be packed in banana leaves and paper.
Plastic cups and cutlery will be replaced with paper ad wood, and straws made of material derived from corn starch. Nishek Jain, owner of Twenty Nine restaurants, said, “We have decided to opt for cane-based packaging with food grade lamination.” Mihir Desai, co-owner of Corum Hospitality which runs Bar Stock Exchange, said, “We have started using paper cups and straws.” At All Elements Cafe and Home Decor in Khar, beverages are being served with metal and bamboo straws.
While Santosh Shetty, president of Ahar, an association of more than 8,000 hotels and restaurants, said takeaway of liquid items will become more difficult, Adarsh Shetty, a former president of the body, said the traditional art of packing thick chutney alongside dosa and idli inside banana leaves will make a comeback.
Arvind Shetty, also a former Ahar president, said, “The government has allowed packaged food in plastic containers, which must be directly sourced from manufacturers. We can’t buy any containers in the wholesale market.”
Maharashtra Pollution Control Board officials confirmed that only factory-packed containers are allowed.
Vikas Thakur, a restaurant owner, said some eateries will try alternatives such as steel containers. “In this case, the delivery boy or hotel manager will ask consumers to keep their steel containers ready at home. The delivery boy will pour out liquids from their containers into consumers’ serving bowls.”