this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2023
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This is needed both in the short and long term. I'll be curious to see what solutions pop up to replace what we've become used to.
Non-recyclable paper products that are still actually lined with plastic.
Meanwhile the vast majority of items on grocery shelves still come in plastic packaging.
The hospital I work at has already adopted wooden cutlery. The fork and spoon are fine, but the knife is absolutely terrible. I hope we can figure something better out for that one.
Washing metal utensils?
There are metal utensils in the building. The wooden ones are in these premade to go meal boxes that are used evening/overnight when the kitchen is closed.
I was kinda just being a smart-ass. Wooden utensils sound like a decent idea.
Using metal utensils isn't a terrible idea. A lot of hospitals used to have tons of metal medical equipment that they would autoclave on-site. Much of that got replaced with "discard-able" plastic equivalents, because it was cheaper and easier. Now, some hospitals don't even have autoclaves; they use a third-party service for the stuff that still needs it.
And there's nothing stopping them from putting metal utensils in the boxes and leaving some bins of dirty utensils for the morning staff.
I'm mean, they are better than the non-degradable plastics, but it's not like they breakdown remotely fast. Those products are more greenwash, [airquotes] biodegradable
I often re-use the biodegradable bags for garbage, and half the time they're disintegrating before the bag's even full.
A lot of biodegradable plastics are only biodegradable in industrial composting facilities, so while better than non-biodegradable plastic, it's not a good solution.
Yea, but I think compostable plastic is closer to damaging than helpful, since it's so hard to actually compost very little.of it will ever be.
Yea, if compostable plastics were compostable at home, I would be all in favor of them!
This is kind of why I'm against bio-degradable plastics: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/dog-poop-bag-on-trails-fredericton-1.6906054
People think they will naturally compost so they just throw them off the trail, and then they don't break down!