Takeout Free in Italy
Whether you’re traveling to Italy or trying to reduce waste, you’ll benefit from knowing that Italians don’t do takeout.
Styrofoam containers do not biodegrade well; plus they come from petrolium-based chemical feedstocks. They’re just plain bad for the Earth and they’re not great for your food either.
I lived in Italy for more than a year. Once, some American friends told me of their attempts to get spaghetti to go. The waiter had looked confused, so they mimed out “bag” and “box.” The waiter smiled weakly, nodded and took their plates to the kitchen. After a minute he returned and, thinking these people were crazy, handed them their spaghetti in a plastic shopping bag.
Italians think a lot of their food. Stuffing it in plastic borders on sacrilege. Besides, you can’t pack the romance of the evening in those little containers either.
More than steering away from Styrofoam to-go containers, Italians have successfully dodged much of disposable food culture. Try getting an Italian to enjoy his cappuccino from the ridged lip of a plastic or Styrofoam coffee cup and he’ll tell you all about the value of a good, decent ceramic cup.
So, if you’re sorjourning in Siena or just inspired by countries doing the right thing, look to the strong Italian tradition of enjoying your food the right way… before you go.
Photo Sources:
Margherita Pizza | Flickr
Styrofoam Containers | Flickr
Italians will do pizza to go, at least in Sicily they do. Sicily also has the “tavola calda”, which serves foods like arancini and pizzette, which can be wrapped up and taken home. Then again, those are very informal foods. Nice restaurants certainly don’t do “take out”.
Great point, Marisa. Writing the article, I wasn’t thinking so much of the pizza by the slice, which you can buy all over the country. (Or panini for that matter, which you can take with you as well.) These “takeout” foods come on a thin sheet of (compostable) paper and are pretty informal, as you say. The type of takeout I had in mind in this article was takeout from restaurants, which (in the USA) often means really nice food in non-biodegradable Styrofoam containers.