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When did the venerable New York Times turn into a comic book? Anyway, far from being an "important job" this is an example of inexcusable waste. Casually usi
by darkpuma 8y ago
When did the venerable New York Times turn into a comic book?
Anyway, far from being an "important job" this is an example of inexcusable waste. Casually using throw-away plastic junk for something as pointless as "separating the flavors", when I'm just going to shove both of those things into my mouth anyway without bothering to rinse out my mouth and cleanse my palate with bland crackers, is beyond the pale. With our precarious global environmental situation, we should be criticizing not apologizing for frivolous waste like this.
And for this matter, stop giving me free plastic forks or chopsticks every time. I own my own reusable stainless steel utensils.
- r00fus 8y agoI really wish delivery services like DoorDash would present UI to opt out of cutlery and condiments (preferably as a default). When I order a dinner for delivery to my home, I'm likely going to use my own plates/knives. If I'm ordering via phone or pickup, I can decline the default forks/chopsticks but using the UI it's nto possible without a "comment" and some restaurants don't even read that. Yes there's already waste in the packaging but often that's compostable these days.
- jimmaswell 8y agoWhy would you rather do dishes than use free plastic cutlery/containers?
- EliRivers 8y agoYet I do. I have some free plastic cutlery in the kitchen right now, yet not ten minutes ago I washed up a ceramic plate and a metal fork. With my hands. There is a dishwasher but I'm using it to store post and as a wine rack.
- ghostwthemost 8y ago<3 for the idea to be using my dishwasher as a wine rack.. I despise wasting time waiting for dishes to wash in a dishwasher; noting also the time it takes to fill it before you run it can leave you without your favorite glass/dish!
- code_duck 8y ago‘Free’ plastic cutlery is being rolled into the price of the dinner, for one. Some people also pay for garbage disposal. Then there is the ecological issue of using and disposing of cutlery and plates after one use. Why would the harm of that need to be explained in 2019? Most household waste in the US goes to landfills. Another issue is personal health. Plastic is continually emitting tiny amounts of toxic chemicals and leaching plasticizers and other endocrine disrupters/suspected carcinogens into the air and anything it comes into contact with. This differs from the glass and ceramic dishes that I purchase for use at home.
- darkpuma 8y agoWhy would you rather pollute the environment with more thrown away plastic crap than spend 20 seconds by a sink to clean a fork? Even if you recycle the plastic fork (few people bother to, since the fork is already associated with food waste they throw it into the trash along with the food waste) the energy cost of recycling that plastic is still inexcusable when you could have avoided the entire thing by simply owning your own fork.
- tracker1 8y agoPlastic is largely a byproduct from oil/gas processing... as long as we're using as much oil/gas as we do, plastic usage (even disposable) is already additional use out of the system. If it weren't composite plastic, it would be landfill sludge anyway. Now, reducing the consumption of oil/gas could reduce plastic as a byproduct and increase costs in which case the market would self-correct.
- darkpuma 8y agoIf that's the direction you want to approach the situation from, then consider that by allowing the byproducts to be commercialized you are in effect subsidizing the oil and gas, and thereby encouraging their continued use. You should also consider the unique harm plastic waste in particular does to wildlife.
- tracker1 8y agoI'm not saying it isn't a problem... the larger issue of littering in general, and wildlife preservation are huge to me. We have very well managed waste disposal sites, and do a lot of subsidizing recycling efforts. My point was that if you aren't littering, then the net cost to the environment isn't such a huge thing. I'm also not a fan of government subsidies in general. Your point really isn't a subsidy, it's a means of greater use, which is generally considered a good thing. Unless you'd rather have more environmental waste that isn't used for any secondary purpose. I'd love to see more/better efforts with regards to wildlife conservation, not littering etc. I like to do road trips while on vacation. Seeing the shear amount of litter on roadways, in the mountains and everywhere but a proper trashcan that will get disposed of reasonably is upsetting. Frankly, I think that getting society as a whole to respect their environment and other people's property (littering and vandalism) would go further to improving things than not.
- nicoburns 8y agoBecause it's better for the environment. Washing dishes is barely any effort. Do you have no concern for the planet at all?
- jimmaswell 8y agoI don't care enough about the infinitesimal impact of an individual using plastic silverware to want to go wash a fork, no. I don't feel the externalities of the decision come anywhere close to outweighing the convenience. Convenience being the whole point of food delivery. I keep all the extra cutlery and napkins I get in a drawer and reuse them. Haven't had to buy paper towels in a long time.
- nicoburns 8y ago> Convenience being the whole point of food delivery. True, but there's a difference between saving upwards of 30 minutes cooking time vs saving 30 seconds washing a plate...
- r00fus 8y agoBecause plastic forks break and our cutlery is nice. Seriously we (family of 5) run the dishwasher most nights - got the kids trained to do their part, so it's not much more work. Do you like throwing away plastic wantonly?
- MarsAscendant 8y agoWhy on Earth would you not? Nevermind the trash you're promoting the production of by accumulating. You already have a reusable, probably more comfortable set of cutlery which has paid itself over a thousands times. As long as you have it, you don't need plastic stuff: no need to use it, no need to hoard it, no need to rely on it – 'cause you already have all the stuff you need at a moment's notice. Doing the dishes is easy. The fact that I have to rack my head about which kind of plastic is reusable and which isn't, then have to separate the two – knowing that I'm throwing the kind of stuff away that will cause noticable damage to the environment when compounded per capita – seems like such a goddamn mess compared to having a ceramic plate ready for use.
- ndarwincorn 8y agoFree only if you willfully ignore obvious externalities.
- genofon 8y ago1 the feeling it's much better 2 enormous waste (multiply that by the people in your country) Once, when I though that people might regularly use plastic I thought: "if that's not a mental health red flag I don't know what it is"
- jimmaswell 8y agoMaybe the "mental health red flag" is ascribing mental illness to people who use plastic
- genofon 8y agoI sincerely wrote that to make the PP author to reflect to his situation, but of course read it as you prefer
- Benjammer 8y agoSeamless.com has had an option at check-out for as long as I can remember that says "I'm trying to save the environment, spare me the napkins and utensils." It's always up to the restaurant to "support" that option though.
- gringoDan 8y agoI agree with you. From the company's perspective, though, the number of complaints from customers who didn't get ketchup, napkins, cutlery, etc. greatly exceeds the number of complaints from people who received too many extras. Given this, drivers are trained (and primed through the rating system) to grab all of the extra items they can.
- tracker1 8y agoGrubhub has the option, but the label is counter-intuitive.
- wink 8y agoI can't remember ever automatically getting any cutlery or napkins when ordering in food in Germany, ever. Maybe wooden chopsticks for fried rice, but maybe I'm misremembering that was when telling them to put some in.
- code_duck 8y agoTypically these are added to sushi packaged in disposable plastic trays. This makes the ‘grass’ a tiny percentage of the plastic used in the meal. The article seems to convey that plastic is considered inferior to vegetable matter for this. It is cheaper, which actually suggests less resource consumption. Plenty of plastic and other resources (petroleum itself) would be expended to provide lettuce or bamboo for this instead of PET, with even less efficiency since it’s perishable. It would be worth comparing whether it would save resources. Another option would be to redesign the container to reduce any need for a separator. A new design could end up using just as much plastic as the current tray + the grass - who knows.
- darkpuma 8y agoMaybe it's regional, but when I get takeout food it's in compressed cardboard-type material containers. If nothing else, it biodegrades. Some of these containers are segmented. Regardless, I am asserting that the "grass" divider is purely aesthetic and should be left out completely. The supposed practical purpose is transparent BS, those flavors are going to get mixed in my mouth more than they would in the tray merely by touching each other.
- code_duck 8y agoI see food from hit bars and restaurant take-out in cardboard sometimes too, but this is prepackaged supermarket sushi.
- crooked-v 8y ago> It is cheaper, which actually suggests less resource consumption. Cheaper so long as you ignore the externalities of long-term use of disposable plastic. Using a little piece of harmlessly biodegradable waxed paper instead might be "more expensive" in strict manufacturing terms but would the cheaper option if the externalities of plastic were properly taxed.
- code_duck 8y agoYou’re right that there is a third option which wasn’t mentioned in the article, which is a non-edible biodegradable separator.
- Sir_Cmpwn 8y agoCute but inaccessible article. What's fun is all of the images have alt tags, but they're empty. Probably to pass some a11y check somewhere!