As I waited in line to dabao (take away) my food, my eyes drifted to the additional S$0.20 charge on the takeaway containers. Curious about how the takeaway charges add up, I did some quick math. Turns out, if you dabao two meals every day for a year, it will rack up close to S$150! Now I know why I still can’t afford my own Netflix subscription. And that’s excluding the detrimental environmental costs from my using and disposing of at least 730 single-use containers in a year of my “dabao lifestyle”. While I can’t avoid all disposables and their costs without a massive life overhaul, I was motivated to find simpler alternative ways to recover my losses and do my part to combat climate change.