best way to go: paper plates, diswaher or sink wash?

[peteee]

True. We are still adjusting a little to the kids' schedule. The boy has only been here since Wednesday. But I'll tell him that he needs to step up and save SpursTalk.

I just wish he hadn't scuppered Spurstalk and that's enough satisfactory to me.

[NFO]

uh...what do you eat that you use a spoon and fork for the same meal?

Soup & salad meals.

Maybe you could have a snack pack of pudding for dessert.

The idea is good though to save utensil drawer space I guess

That was my main point, was that it was a space saver in the drawer, and a time saver for rinsing off spoons and forks.

[Blake]

Anything disposable is going to use far more resources than reusing something non-disposable. The paper to make the plates comes from trees, which means logging, transport, milling, more transport, pulping, bleaching (a very toxic process), processing, packaging, more transport, warehousing, more transport, retailing, and finally landfill. All of that means your paper plates have a significant environmental impact.

OTOH, a ceramic plate will last you 10+ years and you'll get thousands of uses off the one plate. It may take a bit more energy to make the plate in the first place, but you recover that 100s or 1000s of times over when compared to using disposable paper plates. I find it hard to believe that anyone would use paper plates except at a picnic or something similar.

As for dishwashers vs hand washing, it's highly variable depending on how you wash. A super-efficient new dishwasher will use 10-15L of water, whereas I use 5-7 washing by hand. As long as you have an efficient dishwasher and fill it up every time you use it (it will use the same water and energy empty as full, so always fill up before use), that seems okay to me.

good post...info is duly noted. I have read before that it is actually worse on the environment to buy an artificial Christmas tree than a real one unless you use the tree for +/-10 years. I've wondered if it's the same as paper plates to a degree.

I'm also fascinated by the perception in this thread that paper plates are only for picnics. I never knew.

[Blake]

Soup & salad meals.

Maybe you could have a snack pack of pudding for dessert.

snack pack of pudding?

sure, I guess I just could go full high school cafeteria and have salisbury steak, boxed mash potatoes and a box of milk too.

[florige]

good post...info is duly noted. I have read before that it is actually worse on the environment to buy an artificial Christmas tree than a real one unless you use the tree for +/-10 years. I've wondered if it's the same as paper plates to a degree.

I'm also fascinated by the perception in this thread that paper plates are only for picnics. I never knew.

I know me neither. I wonder why they sell them in the winter time too though?

[FatBeaner]

who are all these people going on picnics?


you guys mean a back yard barbeque?

or are you getting your basket and wine and cheese, and putting a blanket out at some park along with your finest dixie plates?

i mean other than the time honored tradition of families camping out at brack (god knows why?) to barbque, i figured most people stay home to do it.

enlighten us picnickers!

[ChumpDumper]

Sure, any outdoor eating. Sorry, I should have been more precise when addressing such a burning, contentious issue.

They are also acceptable at those huge get-togethers where folks are walking through the house with their meals and eating all over the place on tv trays and crap. Especially kids.

[Blake]

Sorry, I should have been more precise when addressing such a burning, contentious issue.

I think 4 pages so far clearly shows that this a scalding hot topic.

A few more hundred pages and it may catch the Apollo missions hoax thread.

[CuckingFunt]

Sure, any outdoor eating. Sorry, I should have been more precise when addressing such a burning, contentious issue.

They are also acceptable at those huge get-togethers where folks are walking through the house with their meals and eating all over the place on tv trays and crap. Especially kids.

This is about what I think of when I think of paper plates. Not in a million years would it even occur to me to use disposable kitchenware in any other situation.

Same goes for the ubiquitous red plastic cup, which looks horribly out of place unless next to either a keg or a punch bowl.

[Blake]

Same goes for the ubiquitous red plastic cup, which looks horribly out of place unless next to either a keg or a punch bowl.

It goes just fine next to my fine Chinet

[florige]

It goes just fine next to my fine Chinet

Chinet?! Please even those are too classy for me. I buy the hefty paper plates that comes a 100 to a pack. Chinet's are the "good dishes" of the paper paper plate industry. lol

[Blake]

Chinet?! Please even those are too classy for me. I buy the hefty paper plates that comes a 100 to a pack. Chinet's are the "good dishes" of the paper paper plate industry. lol

Eh, truth be told, I don't do Chinet any more......but not because I don't want to...

Costco just recently stopped carrying my favorite 300 count bag of the smaller size 8 inch Chinet plates and I've had to settle on the Dixie (maybe it's hefty?) brand.

[bus driver]

I estimate we use about 20 paper plates and forks a week.

That probably costs maybe $1 a week.

If I use the sink or dishwasher, I feel I'm using up fresh drinking water to do so.

Any good arguments one way or the other?

i use the girlfriend, she throws away paper plates, washes dishes and put dishes in the dishwasher.

[Blake]

i use the girlfriend, she throws away paper plates, washes dishes and put dishes in the dishwasher.

I bet the girlfriend costs you more than $1 a week

[Horn Tooter]

Sounds to me like CF thinks she is too good to use paper plates unless it is the proper time and place. Do you also only use paper napkins in the proper place and time and use only cloth napkins everday?

[DoubtingThomas]

There is such a thing as paper plate etiquette?

[Richard Cranium]

We always break out the paper plates for Easter.

[mrsmaalox]

I think 4 pages so far clearly shows that this a scalding hot topic.

A few more hundred pages and it may catch the Apollo missions hoax thread.

Well everyone is just going to do what is best for them. Most of the people I know have families and are busy and prefer not to invest their limited time in cleaning dishes. So it's likely a combination of paper/real dishes. On the other hand it's pretty easy for a person who lives alone, cooks for one, and cleans up after one to hold to a real dishes only rule. Paper plates and cups would be a totally unnecessary expense.

[RuffnReadyOzStyle]

This thread depresses the out of me.

[The Reckoning]

i dont use anything, really. just the tray i cooked the food in or my hand.

[oklahomasuckstexas]

This thread depresses the out of me.

y?

[oklahomasuckstexas]

paper plates & plastic cups all day and all night. regular plates/cups/silverware.

[RuffnReadyOzStyle]

y?

Because the world IS NOT DISPOSABLE. Everything has limits, and every act of consumption has consequences. This is not widely understood, and it is acted upon even less, as is clear from many of the comments above.

The mindset behind using disposable cutlery because you can't be bothered to wash things is the same mindset that will bring down civilisation through rapid and unnecessary resource depletion and pollution. If you have 2 meals a day on disposable items, you will use 730 sets of those disposables per year, 7300 hundred sets a decade per person! The cost of that in terms of energy, resources and pollution, not to mention money, is 100s-1000s of times higher than using crockery/cutlery and washing it. Get it?

Disposability as a minset has only truly arisen in the last 50 years as an offshoot of convenience culture - the idea that instant gratification is a right that usurps all other concerns... as long as you can afford it. The problem arises because the cost of things does not incorporate the depletion of resources, environmental damage, and damage to human health done by consuming things. If we paid the full price (including all externalities) for what we consume we, as individuals and societies, would consume the planet's resources more rationally, understanding the limits placed on us by a finite planet.

Sustainability in all things is the only way to prolong the wonderful lives we live for future generations. Living disposably dooms our great grandchildren to life on a ravaged planet.

/rant

PS Rather than reacting with vitriol and calling me a Communist, I ask you as a friend and fellow traveler just to think about what I've written above for a moment - really think about the implications for the future of living a disposable lifestyle. Thanks.

Of course, what you do about it is up to you.

[RuffnReadyOzStyle]

i dont use anything, really. just the tray i cooked the food in or my hand.

Now this guy is into sustainability!

[Blake]

Because the world IS NOT DISPOSABLE. Everything has limits, and every act of consumption has consequences. This is not widely understood, and it is acted upon even less, as is clear from many of the comments above.

The mindset behind using disposable cutlery because you can't be bothered to wash things is the same mindset that will bring down civilisation through rapid and unnecessary resource depletion and pollution. If you have 2 meals a day on disposable items, you will use 730 sets of those disposables per year, 7300 hundred sets a decade per person! The cost of that in terms of energy, resources and pollution, not to mention money, is 100s-1000s of times higher than using crockery/cutlery and washing it. Get it?

Disposability as a minset has only truly arisen in the last 50 years as an offshoot of convenience culture - the idea that instant gratification is a right that usurps all other concerns... as long as you can afford it. The problem arises because the cost of things does not incorporate the depletion of resources, environmental damage, and damage to human health done by consuming things. If we paid the full price (including all externalities) for what we consume we, as individuals and societies, would consume the planet's resources more rationally, understanding the limits placed on us by a finite planet.

Sustainability in all things is the only way to prolong the wonderful lives we live for future generations. Living disposably dooms our great grandchildren to life on a ravaged planet.

/rant

PS Rather than reacting with vitriol and calling me a Communist, I ask you as a friend and fellow traveler just to think about what I've written above for a moment - really think about the implications for the future of living a disposable lifestyle. Thanks.

Of course, what you do about it is up to you.

I would have to agree....there are things/habits I have that I would like to and am trying to change and I absolutely acknowledge the understanding that we are living on a planet with finite resources.

IIRC, you are an energy consultant of sorts? I like hearing this kind of stuff, so I'm curious, what other things do you do to help conserve our resources? What method of transportation do you have, how do you wash clothes/take showers, what is your source of energy for your house, etc...