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.
Sounds like you’re describing fast food rather than restaurants. Going out to eat, for me, is going to a restaurant. I don’t consider that super wasteful. Restaurants use washable plates and silverware. The travel with the vehicle is wasteful. But it’s not especially wasteful.
Yes. Fast food is super wasteful. Especially if you’re in a region that still uses styrofoam. But it’s probably less wasteful than it was when any of us were children.
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Go to a real restaurant??
…are we describing the same restaurants? Unironically all the restaurants I go to generate less waste than me cooking at home lol…
As in, every time I go to a restaurant they would always bring in washable dishes/utensils, and I assume they would probably have to fill the dishwashers to the brim (in contrast to me living alone & only filling up half each time). The one time I ordered a takeout, the restaurant put all the food in insanely high-quality takeout boxes that were freezer and microwave friendly, I used them for meal prep for a full year…
Granted these are fine dining and all cost a fortune. I guess fast food/takeouts do describe that a bit better
It should be noted that “microwave safe” containers are not necessarily food safe. It literally means they will not melt or warp the microwave.
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.
Funny enough,you produce far more waste and environmental impact if you cook alone or for a small household.
From an environmental perspective a communal cafeteria with set times is actually king.
Do you have a source on that, I know a saw a source a while ago showing that meal delivery service generate less waste due to less food waste than grocery stores have. But in my experience reastaurants have a ton of food waste
I feel like using that statistic is misleading in terms of efficiency just from the factor of “gallons of gas per pound of food transported”.
Sure there’s spoilage from product going bad, but marginal efficiency gains there are so far down the list of things to worry about that they’re not really worth going into. The reason people don’t have food isn’t because enough isn’t produced, it’s because they’re not allowed to have it because they don’t have enough money. Less food spoiling doesn’t fix that problem.
I mean I get where you’re coming from, but if you consider the water to wash dishes wasted, I’m afraid there isn’t really any food that is not wasteful, except maybe berries straight from the bush…
I just drop down on a deer from a tree, eat its liver, and lick the blood off my knife.
You better eat the whole deer. If you leave the hooves behind, that’s too wasteful.
Damn rights, need those for glue. You leave the hooves alone, they’re mine.
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.
Single use plastic should he illegal for most things. Yes, it might be inconvenient to have to carry your own thermos or whatever, but filling the ocean with plastic is worse than inconvenient
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.
I’ve at least been never using cup lids or straws and never taking drink carriers when [they’re] offered (what a massive waste of cardboard!).
- lids and straws are absolutely insignificant against the whole.
- cardboard drink carriers use a rougher kind of cardboard without dyes or wax or plastic, and it’s on the end of the spectrum with the least impact to the environment.
…the bag and wrapper.
You may have picked a class of restaurant that produces the most hard-to-biodegrade waste, and I’m not sure it’s proper to paint an entire industry based on its worst members. It’s like the sub-prime mortgage crisis but for restaurant and waste.
“cook at home!”
I’m not sure you’re comparing two values with the same magnitude.
I wonder if this is just something you notice as you get older.
Your writing suggests a member of a cohort that isn’t even close to getting ‘older’. As an American Millennial, in a country with a rapidly-declining life expectancy, growing old may not be a valid concern.
peiple
A hat on a hat.
I’m disgusted by it.
But I’ve also reached the point where I’ve accepted that humanity will absolutely destroy this planet and there’s not much that we can do about it.
I still try to minimize my waste, but I do so simply to make myself feel better in the short term, not because I think it’s actually going to make a difference in the end.
Yeah on one hand it’s like, screw it, waste all i want and fuck the rest. But then I’d be a boomer
I’m guessing, this is what a drink carrier looks like, in case anyone else is wondering:
If you think what you have to throw out as the consumer is wasteful, take a look in the kitchens of these places and tell me that it’s any better. Most foods that have to be prepped in advance must be separated by single-use parchment/wax paper, then wrapped in plastic. When ready to use, use a glove for a few uses to take the prepped food out of the wrap, remove the paper separating it all, and chuck it out. It could have been prepped a week ago, or only two hours ago for fresh use, you still throw out all this paper and plastic wrapping. And then the cleaning, there is an inexcusable amount of paper towel used for various purposes, from drying your hands to wiping a counter/table, etc. And it’s all thrown out. Some restaurants will use towels and kitchen rags, but then you have so many to wash and clean, it’s usually done by a third-party service that has to drive to pick it all up, drive to a central laundry stop, do the laundry, and then drive it all back to get done again. And if you are in a place that has a washing machine in-house, it’s a drop in the bucket in solving real waste issues.
My issue with eating out is more the cost than the waste. Both are ridiculous though.
no
