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.
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.