Back in the 1960s and 70s the citizens of South India used to pack their lunches in boxes made out of steel or tin. These lunchboxes were also known as tiffins, and they were perfect for carrying rice, vegetables and sauces in them because each tiffin had small, separate compartments in it. These metal boxes were not only a great way to take your food with you, but they also dramatically reduced the amount of waste produced by consumers.

Banquet's Big Idea

Now it’s over 40 years later and the metal tiffins are making their way back into mainstream society! A chain eatery in Singapore, called Banquet, decided to bring the tiffins back to replace their plastic take-out containers. Apparently Banquet’s customers use over 27,000 plastic take-out containers every month, and these containers are not very eco-friendly. Tiffins will replace these non-green items and start consumers on the path towards living an eco lifestyle. What will happen is that customers will put down a small deposit on the tiffin, use it to take home their food and then return the tiffin to the Banquet eatery to get their deposit refunded back to them.

Better Than Styrofoam

I think that this is a great idea to implement into take-out food chains. Instead of millions of plastic or Styrofoam containers taking up space in our landfills or polluting our land, people can reuse these containers and decrease the amount of energy that would otherwise be used to produce more plastic containers. It’s also brilliant that the people have to put down a deposit to get the container because it makes them less likely to keep the container once they have it home. No one wants to leave their deposit unclaimed! Maybe if it’s a success in Singapore the U.S. will adopt some aspect of this idea.