Ocean Friendly Restaurants
Ocean Friendly Restaurants is a certification programme that aims to helping the food service industry progress towards a green transition. It was first launched by the NGO Surfrider Foundation in the United States, and adapted in Europe by Surfrider Foundation Europe.
The programme has defined a set of guidelines that European restaurant owners can subscribe to in order to be certified. The programme guides restaurant owners towards sustainability and helps them reduce their impact, while at the same time, giving customers more transparency and the opportunity to choose restaurants that share their values.
Among the eight criteria restaurants must meet to call themselves an Ocean-friendly restaurant, some are directly linked to the fight against plastic pollution: no expanded-polystyrene or single-use plastics should be provided; the sale of plastic bottles for beverages consumed on-site is prohibited; and ashtrays or trash cans must be made available to smokers outside the restaurant to collect cigarette butts.in
