At the Denver Green Festival earlier this month, I sat down with Stephanie Bernstein, founder of To-Go Ware, a company that manufactures sustainable products to take with you “to go.”

Most green savvy folk will have a reusable water bottle and coffee cup with them to use, and that’s certainly commendable. There are so many water bottles and coffee cups that get thrown away without a second thought.

But what about plastics and to go containers? It used to be the norm that if you were going to a restaurant or cafe to be asked, “for here or to go?” And if you answered, “for here,” you would get actual silverware and dishes. But now, many places don’t even have a for here option!

Some of my favorite small coffee shops still offer the characteristically chipped hand-painted mug for you to sip your tea out of, but if you’re grabbing lunch for under $10, you’re usually out of luck. Every year Americans throw away enough plastic utensils to circle the globe 300 times.

To-Go Ware was founded out of that need for people to keep up their thinking about the life-cycle of a product.  According to Bernstein, the average life-cycle of a plastic fork is four minutes, yet it spends a lifetime in a landfill.

To-Go Ware offers a variety of products to eat on the go without throwing away disposable items. At the most basic level, they have a bamboo utensil set that includes a spoon, knife, fork, and chopsticks, wrapped up in a colorful bag made from recycled plastic bags.

If you want to step it up a notch, you can buy their stainless steel food carriers that come in multiple sizes, and will accommodate any lunch type (soups, sandwiches, etc.). Everything is moderately priced.

I bought my own bamboo utensil set for $10 and have it stowed in my purse. I pulled it out while lunching with coworkers and got some surprised faces and questions, which allows a discussion on reusing products in general to occur.

To-Go Ware has partnered with NGOs, CONSERVE and WEAVE.

CONSERVE employs rag-pickers from the slums of India and takes their collections of thousands of plastic bags from the streets and turns them into beautiful handbags and the bags that hold the bamboo utensil sets of To-Go Ware.

WEAVE (Women’s Education for Advancement and Empowerment) provides education and teaches self-sustainment to women mainly in the Thai-Burma area. The women of WEAVE create high-quality crafts that allow them a higher quality of life. WEAVE also makes a different line of utensil holders.  To-Go Ware is focused on giving back.

To learn more, visit To-Go Ware’s website.