Primary school students from Scoil Ide in Salthill, Galway, have prompted The Dough Bros to take a more sustainable approach to their pizza business.

The students were looking at sustainable business practices and wrote to some of their favourite Galway eateries in an attempt to encourage them to use biodegradable napkins, cutlery, pizza boxes and brown bags. Included on that list was the well-known pizza joint, which became life as a food truck, followed by a temporary pop-up shop and then an established city centre restaurant.

“I was blown away by the letter. So much so as soon as I read it I put it down, I ran down to a local cafe Gerona. I knew they were using compostable disposables and asked for information on the supplier. Within 20 minutes I had rang the Vegware and arranged a meeting and a quotation on changing our cutlery, napkins and brown bags that we serve our pizzas on,” said Eugene Greaney, co-owner of The Dough Bros. “Up until that point becoming more sustainable was a goal, it was on the list, but it was also on the long finger. The passionate letter from the Sixth-class students was the kick up the arse that we needed.”

Going forward, The Dough Bros will be making a switch to fully compostable knives and forks (100,000 of each per year) instead of plastic versions, while the brown bags they use when serving their pizzas (200,000 units every year) will be swapped for compostable greaseproof paper and compostable napkins (150,000 used annually).

“The Dough Bros were top of the list when we asked the class about their favourite place to eat and then we asked, hey, are they doing as they should with their packaging etc?” said Ms Conneelly, sixth class teacher at Scoil Ide. “The class were so happy to see a response and also the lads being so generous also sent out vouchers for us all to eat there. The response alone was good but the fact that the students can see that they made real changes happen will only showcase to them that each and every one of them can make change happen.”