With busy schedules and the buffet not being my preferable meal option, I find myself ordering from PennState Eats almost everyday. With each order I know that I’m creating a lot more waste than if I would eat in at the buffet with the take out containers, sauce packets, and plastic utensils. I love starting my morning with oatmeal from Bowls, but I always felt so guilty throwing out so much plastic. And maybe you’ve come to this realization on your own and earlier than I have, but those plastic containers are great to reuse! There’s no need to toss perfectly good to-go containers when only soap and water stand in your way from having clean, new containers to continue to reuse. I keep the lids for the containers, but they’re also great to just use as a bowl for cereal or snacks. I’m planning on taking mine home to use to take meals to work or to bring food back to school after spring break!
These containers are still great to take on the go as long as you give them a good wash!
Another great way to limit your waste is to use regular utensils if you’re taking food back to your dorm. I often find myself grabbing food to-go simply because I’d rather enjoy a meal in a cozy setting like my room instead of the chaos of a dining hall. When you take food out, it’s easy to grab plastic silverware to add to the convenience, but 40 BILLION plastic spoons, forks, and knives are thrown away every year! While it might be convenient to toss things aside instead of having to lug your dishes, soap, and paper towels down to the janitors closet, this is one small step that can make a big change over the year! I have one fork and about 7 spoons (I drink a lot of tea) at my place, and it’s become a routine to clean as I go which makes things a lot better.
A mistake that I made in an effort to reduce my daily use of plastic was switching to wooden chopsticks. These disposable utensils are easily available at the dining halls for sushi fans, but I would use them for whatever other items I could in order to stay away from plastic. This decision was made using my own logic, but as a non-expert, I was a little over-confident in this effort. In the end, sustainability professions find it hard to distinguish which utensil is better because the amount of wood used for chopsticks is equivalent to 3 million birch trees! While the plastic contributes to waste, wooden chopsticks steal trees that are necessary to continue cleaning and creating oxygen.
Choose the “greenest” options whenever you can. Take out can leave a lasting footprint.
In the end, it’s the little things that matter. Wash those containers! Use your own utensils! I believe in you! But also, have some compassion toward yourself if you slip-up every once in awhile. Sometimes we just need the convenience, and you as a single contribute are not responsible for climate change and excess waste. Until next time, stay green!
This is such a cool post! I am someone who always tries to use reusable bowls/containers in the dining hall, but I agree that sometimes plastic usage is unavoidable. I have never really thought to reuse any plastic I obtain here, but I have in the past with takeout containers, etc. Trying to reuse and eliminate our plastic usage is vital. I also really liked what you said about making sure that we have some compassion for ourselves when we do mess up – even if we are trying, mistakes are inevitable and self-compassion is an important part of that!
I think you raise a good point here that the take-out containers that are used for our meals can usually be converted into reusable containers. A lot of people waste these containers usually like you said because it takes that one extra step to rinse and wash it out. If people were made more aware of the scope of such issues and the amount of waste every year, only then might the population feel guilty for wasting so much plastic.