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All-You-Can-Eat Doesn't Mean All-You-Can-Waste

A buffet in Switzerland now charges by the plate for what you don't finish. A London restaurant will fine you 32 cents. Somewhere, a tray is being loaded like a dare.

The Complaints Department

The Complaints Department

— 1 min read
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A hotel buffet food service line
Photo: basykes (CC BY 2.0)

Research out of UC Berkeley has found that all-you-can-eat buffets waste close to half of what they put out, most of it headed straight for landfill.

A growing number of buffets have responded with a fee for what's left on your plate rather than in your stomach. A buffet in Losone, Switzerland charges roughly 5 francs (about $5) for uneaten leftovers. A Chinese buffet in London tacks on a 32-cent wastage fee for the same offense.

Most all-you-can-eat restaurants already ban taking leftovers home in a box — the deal was always "eat here," not "take here" — and repeat offenders on the waste front can simply be asked not to come back.

The unlimited part of the deal, it turns out, was never really about how much you could eat. It was about how much you'd actually finish.

Filed from public reporting:

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