Real plastic money: Pay for food with waste at this Junagadh cafe

RAJKOT: You would have paid your restaurant bills with your plastic money! In this cafe too, you can smack on some mouth-watering delicacies with plastic as money.
While food and beverage companies are busy finding alternatives to single-use plastic, which will be banned from July 1, Junagadh has given some food for thought in tackling plastic menace.
On June 30, the district administration will inaugurate a cafe where people can savour delicacies by paying with plastic waste instead of money. People can bring in their household plastic waste and they will be served food depending on its weight.
What's more, the ingredients for the food will be organic and sourced locally from the farmers.
The cafe will be run by Sarvoday Sakhi Mandal, a group of women who have tied up farmers while the space and infrastructure has been provided by the administration.
Talking to TOI, Junagadh collector Rachit Raj said, "We want to promote clean and green Junagadh. To start with, we will give a glass of lemon juice or fennel juice for 500 gram plastic waste and one plate of dhokla or poha for 1 kg plastic waste. More the plastic waste, the bigger the platter."
All the beverages including some health ones like those made from betel leaf, rose, figs and bel leaf, will be served in clay utensils. The menu also includes Kathiyawadi and Gujarat platters that will have baingan bharta, sev tameta, thepla and bajra rotlo.
The district administration has hired an agency which will buy this waste.