Canada, possibly behind the curve (?), has announced that they are set to ban certain single-use plastic items. Alberta, hoping to change oil into petrochemicals, is unhappy. Don’t know how the restaurant industry feels but Covid hit many hard.
According to the Toronto Sun, “That means it’s the end of the road for plastic straws, stir sticks, carry-out bags, cutlery, Styrofoam dishes and takeout containers and six-pack rings for cans and bottles.”
If these items are difficult to recycle, and they seem to be, in some ways it seems progressive. This government has not been without “virtue signalling”. Paper straws work fine, probably double as swizzlers. You can put a few bottles in a box. But what alternatives should restaurant takeout use? What do they do elsewhere in progressive areas for to-go cutlery or cheap, heat insulating food packages?
I understand (and even agree with) the “why” for getting rid of disposable plastic straws, but paper straws (or whatever the replacement is) need to be improved. The ones I’ve used, even recently, tend to quickly get soggy and impart their own flavor to the drink.
Usually when I get takeout, it’s to bring home to eat. And I have napkins, ketchup, forks and knives, so I don’t need the paper napkins, ketchup packets and plastic flatware the restaurants shove in the bag. So one easy change is for them just to ask if any of that is needed before automatically providing it.
Well, I usually drive to restaurants to get takeout so I can bring in the same reusable bags I keep in the car for grocery stores. So that leaves only the food container itself. Many restaurants use ones that are sturdy enough to be reusable and I have piles of these in my cabinets, and I do reuse them.
Here is an article on NPR around plastic recycling (there is also PBS Frontline episode on the subject). The disappointing news is that most plastic waste is now just buried with the rest of our trash in landfills, even stuff that says it’s recyclable. The article and program report that the plastic industry has been spending money to convince us plastic recycling is happening in order to placate environmental concerns, and it has worked.
So, I would say anything that reduces demand for single-use plastic items and keeps them out of the environment (and landfills) altogether, is probably a good thing (acknowledging equivalent alternatives have yet to be perfected). Don’t assume any single-use plastic you encounter will be recycled, assume it will end up in the environment.
What about these recent articles I’ve seen about enzymes? They first said they had created an enzyme, or something, allowing modified bacteria to “digest” plastic. I think last week I saw another discovery that this enzyme had been improved to make it hundreds of times faster and to work at room temperature. Any Dopers have expertise or knowledge of this?
Before anyone gasps at the bans (plastic bags were banned a couple years ago), realize that we live on islands and space is at a premium.
The largest fast food drive-inn chain, Zippy’s has already implemented a utensils on request only policy and has extended the band to all locations in the state. It’s a winning move for the company since it saves it money.
As for how “plate lunches” as call them here, are going to be served, just like before styrofoam containers became popular, with foil covering the top or butcher paper folded and wrapped completely around the plate with a rubberband to keep it in place. Need more protection? There’s plate lunch boxes (half the height of a cake box) which if used, the foil or full paper wrap isn’t used, just a piece of wax paper on top to protect the contents.
Soup to go? We have poi bowls. Plastic lined paper bowls.
Utensils? Almost every here knows how to use chopsticks. And before plastic forks, there were wooden or now bamboo alternatives. Spoons and knives more difficult, but there are wooden versions of both. Don’t like wooden spoons? Learn to eat Asian style as demonstrated by Carmen at OTGW! Actually I’ve never seen anyone but Japanese eat this way. Hint, never ask for a spoon for your miso soup at a Japanese restaurant.
Interesting that they’re still plugging ahead with the laws. All of the waste reduction measure laws in Chicago have either been suspended for Covid or are just being ignored now.
Most delivery and takeout food we get in SF come in compostable clamshell containers like this.
Some places are also using plant-based plastics that are commercially compostable.
Our compost bin is usually more full than either the landfill or recycling bins these days.
One taco chain identifies almost all of their packaging as compostable – even those little plastic lidded containers of hot sauce. They buy “bioplastics” for the plastic stuff and the only things that are not compostable are commercial condiment envelopes and one or two other things.
Unfortunately, with a big increase in take-out, they have much less control over how the waste stream is handled, so a lot of that stuff is ending up in the landfill of late.
I dont understand why this is. As a kid growing up in the 60’s and 70’s, most straws were still paper. and I dont remember them getting as soggy as the ones now do. Were they significantly different? Am I remembering wrongly? What’s the deal?
That’s what I was going to say; the cafeteria at work uses exclusively compostable
and bioplastic stuff- as far as I can tell, it works just like the petrochemical stuff. Of course, that’s commercially compostable, meaning that it only decomposes at certain temperatures that are only reliably reached and held for the requisite time in commercial composting operations.
Even if they’re just tossed in a landfill, I think they may be better for the environment solely due to a more friendly production process versus oil-based products.
I don’t understand, either, though I remember hearing, anecdotally, a year or so ago, that there was only one or two manufacturing plants that were even making paper straws anymore.
That said, my experiences with paper straws recently is that, within 10 minutes or less of putting one into a drink, it would start to fall apart.
I am guessing that whatever measures that were in place for waste reduction prior to the pandemic are not practical right now since the only way restaurants were able to operate for a while was doing take-out. So demand for single-use products probably surged without a likewise mitigation plan for the additional solid waste.
In some areas, the use of reusable grocery bags brought in by the customers was banned, so stores were providing paper bags, reusable plastic one or the old, thin t-shirt bags.