The City of Tallinn banned the use of plastic cutlery and serving food and drinks in single-use plastic dishes at public events in October 2019.

The use of dishes and cutlery made of compostable (e.g. wood, cardboard, palm leaf etc) or biodegradable bio-plastic that meets the EVS-EN 13432 or equivalent standard is still allowed. These materials are marketed as a sustainable alternative to single-use plastic but we all know that every single-used material is burdensome on the environment.

There are different reusable dishes and containers providers in Estonia. More and more events are held using reusable dishes and cutlery and take-away food/drinks are served in deposit containers. We see that citizens (event organisers, visitors) are ready to replace disposable dishes and cutlery with reusables as the demand of using deposit cups and dishes in public events and buying take-away food and drinks in deposit containers is expanding every year.  Therefore, the City of Tallinn is planning to ban the use of every single-use material dishes and cutlery at public events and inner events held by the authorities (e.g. schools, theatres, etc) of the City of Tallinn in the beginning of 2023.

In 2022, reusable dishes (plates, cups) are piloted in different public events held in Tallinn. These public events involve sport events where mainly reusable cups are used and family festivals where food and drink is served and deposit dishes can be used. The idea is to get feedback from the piloted events to improve the system and make it more comfortable for the event organisers and visitors.

The biggest public event The 13th Youth Song and Dance Celebration will be held in Tallinn in the summer of 2023. This event brings together around 100 000 singers, dancers, musicians and visitors and we are planning to organise this event as single-use free and sustainable as possible. This will be a huge challenge but we are all working on to make it happen.

If such a small city as Tallinn can organise an event with 100,000 participants singe-use dishes free then hopefully it encourages other cities to organise zero waste events as well.