How Much Waste Hides in Your Take-Away Order?

The Real Cost of Condiment Sachets and Paper Napkins

Aditi Deodhar discusses how default condiment sachets and paper napkins in take-away orders create hidden waste, carbon emissions, and microplastic pollution — and why a simple “Ask First” approach can save money and protect the environment.

When we think of restaurant waste, we usually picture big plastic containers, plastic bags, and disposable cutlery.
But some of the most invisible and persistent waste comes from the smallest items:

single-use condiment sachets
paper napkins
plastic-wrapped extras that are added by default to every take-away order

Most of these are never even used. They sit in drawers, get thrown away with the bag, or go straight into the dustbin.

This post looks at what happens when restaurants add these items automatically:

How much waste do they generate?
What is their carbon footprint?
How do they contribute to microplastic pollution?
And why a simple “Ask First” policy can save money and protect the environment.

Why Condiment Sachets and Paper Napkins Are a Hidden Waste Problem

Sachets: small size, big impact

Condiment sachets (ketchup, sauces, chutneys, seasonings) are usually made from multi-layer plastic films — often a mix of plastic, aluminium, and sometimes paper. These multilayer films are not recyclable in normal municipal systems; they usually end up in landfills, drains or open environments.

A life-cycle study of single-use plastics shows that such “flexible packaging” is among the most difficult to recycle, and often has higher environmental impact per gram than rigid plastics because of additives, inks, and layered materials.

Paper napkins: not as harmless as they look

Paper napkins feel “eco-friendly” because they’re made of paper. But they:

require pulp, water, energy and chemicals to produce
are often bleached and may contain dyes and wet-strength resins
get contaminated with food, making them non-recyclable in most systems

Even the US EPA notes that paper products, when landfilled, can contribute to methane emissions as they decompose anaerobically.

So both sachets and paper napkins are essentially single-use, non-recoverable waste.

How Much Waste Does a Typical Restaurant Generate from “Default” Extras?

Let’s take a mid-size urban restaurant that:

handles 200 take-away orders per day
automatically adds 2 condiment sachets + 1 paper napkin to each order
(very common for burgers, rolls, pizzas, Chinese, biryani, etc.)

We’ll use conservative weights:

1 sachet (with ketchup etc.): ~3 g
1 small paper napkin: ~1.5 g

Daily waste from sachets & napkins

For 200 take-away orders:

Sachets: 200 orders × 2 sachets = 400 sachets/day
Napkins: 200 orders × 1 napkin = 200 napkins/day

Weight per day:

Sachets: 400 × 3 g = 1,200 g (~1.2 kg)
Napkins: 200 × 1.5 g = 300 g (~0.3 kg)

Total = 1.5 kg of single-use waste every day
from just two “small” items.

Monthly and yearly waste (per restaurant)

Per month (30 days): 1.5 kg × 30 = 45 kg
Per year: 45 kg × 12 ≈ 540 kg (over half a ton)

That’s half a ton of mostly non-recyclable waste per restaurant, per year, from items many customers never asked for or needed.

Now multiply this by:

100 restaurants in one city → 54,000 kg (54 tonnes) of waste per year
1,000 restaurants → 540 tonnes per year

And this is only from sachets + napkins, not containers, bags, or cutlery.

Carbon Footprint of These “Tiny” Items

Every sachet and napkin also has a carbon story:

raw material (fossil fuels for plastics, trees for paper)
manufacturing & packaging
transport
and finally, waste handling / landfill / incineration

Rough emissions per sachet & napkin

Different life-cycle analyses give different numbers, but reasonable approximations used in waste-carbon tools are:

Flexible plastic packaging (like small sachets) can have ~1.5–3 kg CO₂e per kg over its life cycle.
Tissue / paper napkins can have ~1–1.5 kg CO₂e per kg, including pulp, energy and transport.

Let’s take mid-range estimates:

Sachets: 2.5 kg CO₂e per kg
Napkins: 1.2 kg CO₂e per kg

From above, our example restaurant generates:

1.2 kg sachet waste/day
0.3 kg napkin waste/day

Daily / monthly / annual emissions (per restaurant)

Daily CO₂e:

Sachets: 1.2 kg × 2.5 = 3 kg CO₂e/day
Napkins: 0.3 kg × 1.2 = 0.36 kg CO₂e/day
Total: ≈ 3.36 kg CO₂e per day

Per month: 3.36 × 30 ≈ 101 kg CO₂e

Per year: 101 × 12 ≈ 1,212 kg CO₂e

So a single restaurant is responsible for over 1.2 tonnes of CO₂e per year, only from default sachets and napkins.

Again:

100 restaurants → 121 tonnes CO₂e/year
1,000 restaurants → 1,210+ tonnes CO₂e/year

And this is a conservative estimate.

Microplastics: Why Sachets Are Not Just “Harmless Little Packets”

The global scientific community is increasingly concerned about microplastics — tiny plastic particles that enter soil, water, air, food and human bodies. Studies have detected microplastics in:

human blood
placenta
lungs
breast milk and stool

Sachets contribute in several ways:

Fragmentation in the environment
When sachets are littered, exposed to sunlight, heat and mechanical abrasion, they break down into microplastics that contaminate soil and water.
Incineration & open burning
In many Indian cities, low-value plastic like sachets is burnt, releasing toxic fumes and microplastic ash.
Leakage through drains
Sachets block drains and enter rivers, where they fragment further and enter aquatic food chains.

The problem is that multi-layer sachets are almost never collected and recycled — they have very low economic value for waste-pickers and recyclers. So nearly 100% of them escape into the environment or end up in landfills, where they will persist for hundreds of years.

Paper napkins don’t create microplastics, but they lock in the footprint of industrial paper production and add to landfill loads.

Why Adding Extras “By Default” Is Bad Business Too

From a restaurant’s point of view, automatic add-ons may seem like “good service”, but in reality they:

Increase costs (inventory + storage + pilferage)
Create more packing time and clutter
Lead to waste of stock (sachets expire, napkins get dirty)
Offer no additional value to customers who don’t want them

Most homes already have:

ketchup / chutney in bottles
tissue boxes or cloth napkins
spoons and forks

So in many cases, these extras are not a “delight” — they are simply waste.

“ASK FIRST”: A Simple Way to Cut This Waste at Source

The solution is surprisingly simple:

Before adding sachets, napkins or cutlery, ASK the customer if they want them.

If they say yes → give.
If they say no → you save cost, reduce waste, cut emissions.

Many studies in behavioural science show that changing the default option (from automatic add-on to “on request”) dramatically reduces consumption without reducing satisfaction.

For Restaurant Owners,

What happens when restaurants use ASK FIRST?

Let’s go back to our example restaurant:

200 take-away orders/day
Suppose 40% of customers say “No, I don’t need sachets/napkins.”
(Experience from similar campaigns shows 30–60% say no when asked.)

Then:

Orders with no extras = 80/day
Sachets avoided = 80 × 2 = 160 sachets/day
Napkins avoided = 80 napkins/day

Daily waste avoided:

Sachets: 160 × 3 g = 480 g (0.48 kg)
Napkins: 80 × 1.5 g = 120 g (0.12 kg)

👉 Total = 0.6 kg/day, 18 kg/month, ~216 kg/year of waste avoided per restaurant, just by asking first.

CO₂e avoided (using earlier factors):

Sachets: 0.48 kg × 2.5 = 1.2 kg CO₂e/day
Napkins: 0.12 kg × 1.2 ≈ 0.14 kg CO₂e/day
Total ≈ 1.34 kg CO₂e/day → ~490 kg CO₂e/year avoided

That’s nearly half a tonne of CO₂e saved per restaurant per year, from a one-sentence change in staff behaviour.

Benefits of ASK FIRST for Restaurants

Direct financial savings

Less material used = less material purchased.

If one sachet costs ₹0.50 and one napkin ₹0.30, then each “NO” saves ~₹1.30.
With 80 “NOs” per day → ₹104/day
Per month → ~₹3,000
Per year → ₹36,000 saved.

Multiply by 10 outlets and the numbers become significant.

Operational simplicity

Less restocking
Cleaner counters and prep area
Easier inventory management

Brand value

Customers (especially young, urban audiences) are increasingly supportive of low-waste, eco-friendly businesses. An “ASK FIRST” sign at the counter signals that the restaurant cares about the city and the planet.

How to Implement ASK FIRST in Your Restaurant

You don’t need an app, software, or consultant. You only need three things:

A small sign at the counter

“We give sachets and napkins only if you want them.
Please ask if you need them.”
A short staff briefing

“Before packing, ask: ‘Sir/Madam, do you need sauce sachets or napkins?’
If they say no → don’t add them.”
Optionally, track how many customers say NO
- Use a small tally sheet.
- At the end of the month, estimate the sachets/napkins and money saved.

That’s all.

We will provide the signages, employee training guidance and the Impact Certificate at the end of the pilot.

Click on the button below to fill out the enrollment form

Conclusion: Small Items, Huge Impact

Condiment sachets and paper napkins may look harmless, but at city scale they create:

tons of non-recyclable waste,
significant carbon emissions, and
microplastic pollution, especially from multi-layer plastics.

The good news is: this is one of the easiest waste streams to reduce.

For restaurants, the ASK FIRST approach is:

simple to implement
low cost
customer-friendly
and high-impact for both the environment and the bottom line

If you run a restaurant or know someone who does, consider making a small change:

Don’t add sachets and napkins by default.
Ask first. Give only when needed.

Your customers won’t miss the extras.
But your city — and the planet — will feel the difference.