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.
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.
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.
If you hate biodegradable and compostable things, you're the baddie. The math seems solid.
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
Okay, I'm hitting the (qualified) opinion pieces and I'm seeing the issues like the microplastic intermediate stage and the low 'success' rate of plastic breaking down after a 6 month period (which I'm assuming isn't arbitrary).
You've forced me to learn, dammit. Thanks (Thanks; I hate it?)
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.
Perfect is indeed the enemy of adequate.
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.
I'm not seeing the difficulty angle on the composting, but I'm learning the labeling on them is both confusing and not-really-regulated (that I've yet seen); and not really validated either way, it seems. Bloody big tip-off that it's shite greenwashing. Argh.
bah. Zero fun.
So to make terms like 'biodegradable' or 'compostable' even remotely valuable as terms for packaging, we need inspectors and testers confirming them. Having gone through a series of halfwit governments run by 'small government' platforms (the 'small' is when they shed oversight and safety inspectors, naturally, so their lobbyists can further victimize people for profit), I think we're a long way off.
I'm learning, and I'm correcting my opinions as we go. Thanks for catalyzing that.
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!
Yea, if compostable plastics were compostable at home, I would be all in favor of them!