You know the drill: You order take-out from a Chinese restaurant or some other local eatery, pick up the grub, and then head home to discover they've placed enough utensils inside for a small army. Meanwhile, you've already dished out your General Tsao's, grabbed a metal fork, and started digging in. Now what? If you're like a majority of Americans, those little plastic utensils and napkins at the bottom of the bag find their way to the trash bin. For others, recycling is an option, and an even smaller minority keep the utensils for later. With all the plastic I have in my kitchen drawer, this process happens more often than not.

Anyways, one activist group called EcoAgents is asking all of us to be more proactive when ordering take-out. They've created a campaign called "ECO-TO-GO" that seeks to reduce waste, pollution, and packaging. As their site mentions, almost 1/3 of waste in the US comes from packaging. Our country throws away enough plastic cups, forks, and spoons to circle the equator 300 times! Yikes. So, they've started signing up restaurants, delis, and anyone else that delivers food to join in the effort to reduce, reuse, and recycle.

The premise is simple: Anytime you call for food, amaze you family and friends (and quite possibly the person on the other end of the phone) by saying you'll take that order "ECO-TO-GO". Such a statement will either cause confusion and require further clarification or a "No problem. Your food will be ready in 10 minutes. No forks, no napkins, just the General and all his chicken goodness." Boom! — you've already done the world a service and reduced the need for useless dining accessories. Now, be a real greenie and ride your bike down to pick it up.

You can check out more information over at the EcoAgents site. If you're a restaurant owner, contact this group and make your customers aware of the alternatives. Ordering take-out has never been more environmentally-geeky. I love it.