I could have titled this as just waste created by living daily, but wanted to focus it down a little more. I feel kind of like im the crazy one that sees this insane waste when eating at restaurants, wrappers, cups, drink carriers going right in the trash, billions per day. Its insanity if you think about it.
I’ve at least been never using cup lids or straws and never taking drink carriers when theyre offered (what a massive waste of cardboard!). Then most of the waste is at least paper from the bag and wrapper. Still not great. And yes, I know the solution would be “cook at home!” But that also wastes a lot of freshwater from dish washing, and sometimes it’s just nice to eat somewhere else.
I wonder if this is just something you notice as you get older. Then again older peiple probably waste the most, but I’m just guessing.
It’s unfortunately a cost thing.
If you want to avoid the single use waste, you have to patronise more expensive restaurants
In my experience it’s fast food or fast food adjacent places that are the worst for disposable items. The more expensive the meal, the only things going in the bin are any leftovers.
It really shouldn’t be that way, but it is.
I came to say actually its a bit more efficient but it sounds like you mean fast food. I mean when I hear out to eat I think waitress, silver and dinnerware type thing. I mean even casual dining like tgif or such and heck steak and shake you can sit down and get that. Also if you have ever seen technology connections, dishwashers are insanely efficient water wise reusing it over and over till it gets dirty.
Go to a real restaurant??
You should see what happens at the hospital. Every item is single use in plastic packaging.
Oof, thats very true. But how else do you keep everything clean i guess. Losing game
Yes, but that is for good reason: sanitation.
Yeah people got to pick their battles lol
Otherwise we end shilling some extreme ideas.
Splastic waste for slop bad
Hospital plastic waste is a price we are willing to pay.
And yes, I know the solution would be “cook at home!” But that also wastes a lot of freshwater from dish washing
I don’t think this is a good point. Just by living you’re going to be using resources of some kind, it’s simply unavoidable. I would worry less about trying to consume zero resources and more about particularly harmful things, like single-use plastics. Especially since fresh water is not an issue in some places, like where I am.
Honestly, if you’re going to a table service restaurant, it might be even better than eating at home. You’re not going to get much plastic waste from single use items like you would with fast food, and because of the scale of the operation I could believe that restaurants are creating less waste per meal than individuals cooking at home. Think of a case of chicken breast versus individually packaged ones and the amount of plastic each uses, for example.
I personally avoid going to places that require tips or if they use anything disposables for dine in. Or if they scan ID. Fuck them.
For carry out, if disposable better be paper and foil. Yeah it limits my choices but this is a direct action I can do all day every day. Food out iz a luxury anyway. I can literally go without while saving money.
I agree, I think part of the subconcious luxury is having lots of stuff used and wasted on you, on the otherhand though cooking food at a central canteen is always going to be more efficient and less wasteful than everyone individually cooking at home so shrugs when I go out I just only support local restaurants and try to avoid the ones that are blatantly wasteful.
I feel like disposable cups, flimsy disposable plates, and crappy plastic utensils are the opposite of luxury. They remind you that you’re eating food made on an assembly line at the lowest possible cost. But maybe that’s just my point of view.
Definitely, but we are talking about the US here, we are conditioned from a young age to become aroused by the imagery of disposable cheap things being used once and then thrown away.
To the US psyche, tacky disposable things are an expression of our superiority and power since we can choose in all of our material wealth to simply toss away the things around us and get new ones as much as we like, for any reason.
A fancy porcelain plate on the otherhand to the US psyche is a symbol of weakness, of an inability to break with the past, of a fragility and fear that there is something beautiful that could be broken that cannot be easily replaced and that must be treated with respect. This is seen as how savages think and act by USians, not consciously necessarily but our worldview was shaped this way for a reason.
Move Fast And Break Things
Do you ever think about how it would be the most natural thing in the world for US “conservatives” to treat the primary concern for conservation as the health of the natural landscapes around us? You have to ask yourself why under the extremophile environment of US society that this isn’t even considered an intellectual incongruity most of the time?
You had me until “wastes a lot of freshwater from dishwashing” now you are just picking things to get mad about.
Yes I agree, eating out, specially fastfood is super wastefull for no reason at all.
Generally there should be more products offered as unpacked versions: where you can bring your own conatiner and fill out the things you need at the store and pay in kilos / litres and not in pieces. Unfortunately we are not there yet.
I’m not so sure eating out a restaurant that doesn’t use disposable utensils/dishes is really wasteful at all. The only difference i can think of is if you drove a long distance to get there. But it might actually be more efficient from an energy consumption perspective. You might have to heat up your oven just for a meal for a few people but they are going be cooking up a lot of stuff at once. I’d say the much bigger factors are a) are you wasting good and b) what kind of food are you eating.
All of the packaging needed for a lot of food at home as well, I feel like restaurants probably throw away less packaging comparatively with how much they get in bulk.
All of the plastic bottles for sauces, plastic containers for spices, meat and certain produce items that come packaged in plastic and styrofoam, plastic bags for bread and rice and pasta and junk food. Frozen items packaged in plastic in boxes that took energy to keep frozen before we spend energy to heat them within a minute or two, just because we’re too lazy to cook today.
Not to say that restaurants waste no packaging, but they’d use less given the volume of supplies they source, and likely prepare more in-house rather than buying pre-prepared.
I’d say restaurants are probably way more efficient in terms of waste and energy consumption than the average household. Cooking in bulk for a lot of people is better than a lot of people individually cooking for themselves.
In Canada we have this thing called “bulk barn” (a brand of bulk food stores) that you pay by weight, as much or as little as you want, but you put each item you get into its own plastic bag.
You can bring your own containers. They will tare them (ie weigh them and mark them with their mass) and then you can fill them as much or little as you like. On Sundays, you get an extra discount for bringing your own containers.
Are you referring mainly to fast food places or is it like that even at regular restaurants where you live? If I go to my local pizzeria or really any restaurant that isn’t a fast food chain, there won’t be any wrappers, single use cups or anything like that. Food will be served on plates with metal cutlery, drinks in drinking glasses etc. About the only single-use thing would be napkins I guess.
wrappers, cups, drink carriers
Very high chance they are referring mainly to fast food.
It seems like they’re not even aware of the existence of restaurants that aren’t fast food.
I could understand homecooking and when ordering food, as that stuff comes in disposable packaging.
But when going out to eat? Drinks come in a glass or cup, food comes on a plate, side dishes in bowls. I’m sure the kitchen produces waste, but you don’t really get to see it.
A lot of places been going the disposables route even if it is dine in with a tip. Idiots lost their fickong minds.
My issue with eating out is more the cost than the waste. Both are ridiculous though.
Rich ppl prob create that much waste casually just eating at home idrc about what working class ppl do
I just wanted to mention that using some water to wash dishes isn’t wasteful at all. Also a dish washer uses much less water than you’d think.
You’re talking about fast food. And even them are slowly (very slowly) moving toward reusable/washable stuff.
Some fast food, if eating there (not to-go) have limited waste, as far as the customer side is concerned. Actual restaurants, aside from straws everything’s reusable. And they’re probably a bit more efficient than cooking at home, too.
It might just be a case of stopping supporting places that are not moving in line with the time.
Freshwater is not wasted. Hot water is wasted unless your water heating comes from renewable energy (rare), so wash as cold as possible, but freshwater is not wasted. It is trivial (though it does cost money!) to treat waste water from your cleaning (including your toilets) and turn it back into drinkable fresh water. I know cities generally dump their treated sewage back into the river, but it is drinkable water and the next city downstream will take it in.
