Wholesome Kitchen sign up for ‘Choose to Reuse’ scheme

Wholesome Kitchen in Dominick Street is the latest Mullingar restaurant to sign up to the Choose to Reuse project.

A Mullingar Tidy Towns initiative, Choose to Reuse is one of the cornerstones in the group’s work in the Sustainability – Doing more with Less category of the national Tidy Towns competition.

The aim of the project is to tackle the problem of single use cups and therefore prevent waste, reduce litter, and encourage reuse. The Choose to Reuse – Conscious Cup campaign aims to decrease the use of single use cups, by encouraging cafés and other outlets to reward customers for bringing their own reusable cup. Wholesome Kitchen are offering a 30-cent discount for anyone who purchases or uses a reusable cup, and to celebrate the launch of the campaign they are offering a free coffee during the week of October 8-15 to anyone using a reusable cup.

At the Choose to Reuse launch in Wholesome Kitchen cathaoirleach Cllr Paddy Hill said: “We are disposing over 200 million single use cups every year – it is a huge waste of resources both in manufacturing the cups and in disposing of them after their short life. It is wonderful to see the businesses working with their local Tidy Towns group leading the way to influence behavioural change because that is the solution.”

David Quirke, proprietor of Wholesome Kitchen, says that “doing the right thing and our bit for the environment is of significant importance” to him and his staff.

“We only use takeaway packaging that is compostable or recyclable and we are working towards a plastic free restaurant. That is why the Choose to Reuse project is so important. All our efforts are bringing to life a circular economy by working closely with Mullingar Tidy Towns and local suppliers to ensure no single use materials are used and we are working very hard to do this. We ensure all waste is segregated from the customer areas right through to the back of house waste as it’s something we are passionate about.”

Cllr Bill Collentine, chairperson of Mullingar Tidy Towns, and fellow member Margaret Feely were in attendance for the launch. Cllr Collentine said that he’d like to see more businesses signing on for the project.

“The ongoing enhancement works are an investment for future-proofing our town and delivering high quality civic areas – promotions such as the reusable cups compliment these works as we have to be working towards being more sustainable in our daily actions and this is a very simple and manageable step and I look forward to more businesses coming on board to support it.”

Wholesome Kitchen is a new fast casual restaurant, launched in Mullingar at the beginning of August by the local husband and wife team David Quirke and Denise Buckley. The restaurant is a casual style concept which offers healthier foods all made from scratch every day.