>

Don't forget duct tape, can't replace that with velcro.
so begins the era of the double-use plastic cutlery and plates >

Double? Man, I snagged a plastic "single use" fork from the cafeteria at work to eat my lunch I bring from home. It's going 6 months strong. Just rinse it off everyday. >

uh look I know it's kind of a meme at this point but reusing single use plastics like that introduces even more microplastics into your body than we 'normally' get >

Is it really any different than using a new plastic utensil everyday? Seems like him reusing one is less harmful than the 100 he hasn't used and thrown out. >

The utensil gets washed and scratched, which loosens more pieces of plastic. >

But, again, how different is that from simply being used as a plastic product that goes into your mouth and is scraped with your teeth? >

The repetitive usage puts more strain on it over time, causing more degradation. It's not a linear progression, it gets worse the further along you go. >

I laughed a sad laugh when I bought a Wendy’s meal the other day. Full plastic cup with plastic lid a shitty paper straw >

Is this why every take out meal I get now is like a hard durable plastic? Supposed to be reused? What am I gonna do, take it back to them before I order my next meal? >

It's the dumbest and meanest form of greenwashing:

Use more plastic than before
Tell the customer not to throw the packaging away, but to re-use it
Leave the customer to blame themselves for the plastic waste when they can't find a use case >

Classic buck-passing, like the whole “recycling” scam. Most “recycled” plastics just get sent overseas to pile up in some other much poorer country. >

Or Nike sending you a plastic pouch of microplastics they saved from the planet...for you to dispose of... >

Wait, what? >

To my understanding, it's mean to be attached to a key chain or a bag. A reddit post has a picture. Link. >

But like... why? >

Nonperishable travel sized snacks >

Single-use plastics in any industry? Fair game
Plastic forks and plates? You're a bad citizen and deserve to feel bad for it >

Yeah it's a good start but as a chef I still use miles worth of cling film every year. If we're going to stop using single use plastics there needs to be funding put into more environmentally safe and cost effective alternatives.
People don't use them because they hate the environment, they use them because the alternatives are either too costly or non existent. >


the alternatives are either too costly

It's not so much that the alternatives are too costly but that they actually internalize their costs. As long as the cheap, disposable, harmful products are allowed to externalize the costs of the damage they cause, they will continue to free-ride. >

And not necessarily even exorbitantly expensive, just not as cheap as plastic. If plastic had never been an option, I'm sure we'd get by just fine using whatever alternatives there are, but we've set the expectation that anything we replace plastic with has to be as good or better in every way, including price. >

The worst is plastic drink bottles.  We already had glass and aluminum which aren't terribly expensive to use and easy to recycle.  Even for litter the alternatives are miles better. Glass bottles will just break down to smaller and smaller pieces of inert sillicates and aluminum while not great is still probably better than having micro-plastics everywhere. >

Yup. The trouble is that once people have had something that's a little cheaper or more convenient, nobody wants to go back even if the old ways of doing things were just fine. >

Companies didn’t switch because people found it more convenient. They switched because it was cheaper for them to ship. Plastic bottles, even when built to fill more liquid, are cheaper to ship than glass. >

Right, but if they shipped glass ones as well and charged more to cover the extra costs, people would still generally buy the plastic ones because consumers also prefer lower prices. >

Was thinking the same why the fuck we use plastic when glass works so well but the thing is glass is heavy as fuck and you use up so much more fuel shipping glass bottles around that you are not doing the planet any service. >

Every time humanity finds something that makes life easier for us, we overdo it to the point where it's harmful to us and everyone/thing else around us (we know lots of example from today, but a couple quick examples from the past, and far far past: whaling for blubber for lamps and hunting all big mammals to extinction in prehistoric times).  
In short, humanity is gluttonous.
I think this overall problem is something we should address because we're only thinking about it case-by-case at the present time. >

I agree. >

I say we go back to the days where people just had their own personalized cutlery that they just brought around with them everywhere. >

I like this idea, and would love to reuse my personal coffee mug but where do you wash them?  What do you do with your dirty fork after you eat? >

You'd have a bag that you carry it in and rinse things in the bathroom after you've used them. Then wash them when you get home. >

Or… restaurants can just run them through the sanitizer and hand them back? 
I’ve worked at a few bars that do custom glassware and I’d always rinse/sanitize a glass for a customer if they want to take it home. >

I’m not doing that during a rush, sorry. >

Was thinking the same thing.
Last thing I need during a rush is customers insisting I wash their glassware.
However the original guy probably is in a very different environment if they do custom glassware(?). >

Way to go for the big ticket items instead of going for relatively trivial nonsense to make it look like your actually doing something to the borderline brainless average voter. >

The restaurant at my work recently switched from plastic cutlery to metal cutlery so it could be washed and reused, that was until they lost a load of them because people would take them home.
The average age of the employees on site is probably about 50 so god knows why they're hurting for cutlery. >

I don't bring cutlery home but I swear to god that based on some of the cutlery in the drawer, my cutlery must be going out and bringing home strays. >

Mine is consistent aside form the unexplained exodus of the smaller sized forks. And I rarely use them. >

Ahh I see you too have fallen victim to the overtaking of the small forks as well >

I work in the UK in the theatre and live events industry. We go through billions of miles of electrical tape every year. This needs to stop.
Companies I work with are trying new methods of Velcro tie wraps and such, but it's a hard habit to break when it's so common.
"I'm doing my part!"