Do you use paper plates?

[Rocklobster]

I don't want to hijack this thread, but I always wonder if the fossil fuels being burned by all of the recycling trucks and machinery in this world is worse for the planet than burying it in land fills...

 

[Aunt Bea]

I don't want to hijack this thread, but I always wonder if the fossil fuels being burned by all of the recycling trucks and machinery in this world is worse for the planet than burying it in land fills...

I think that you make a valid point.

When we lived in the country and had our own burn barrel it was probably better for the environment than going to the expense of building/buying a garbage truck, taking the trash to a landfill or recycling plant several miles away and concentrating the contamination.

I suppose the current system is better for city folks.

 

[buckytom]

I've read studies that if nothing else, aluminum should always be recycled. It takes a heck of a lot of energy to make it new, but a fraction to make from recycled.

 

[caseydog]

I think that you make a valid point.

When we lived in the country and had our own burn barrel it was probably better for the environment than going to the expense of building/buying a garbage truck, taking the trash to a landfill or recycling plant several miles away and concentrating the contamination.

I suppose the current system is better for city folks.

Yeah, I'd say burn barrels in every yard would not be a viable solution here in the burbs of Dallas.

CD

 

[Katie H]

Our reply would have to be "never" because I couldn't tell you the last time we purchased paper plates.

Our paper consumption is next to nothing, except for toilet paper.

No paper napkins because cloth napkins have been part of our table since the children were babies...'60s. Almost no paper towel use either. I usually buy a "block" of paper towels from Sam's Club once a year. That's all we need.

I'd really have to look for some paper plates if asked to present same.

 

[TATTRAT]

Depends on the occasion.

 

[roadfix]

Most of our paper waste comes from the daily junk mail we receive.

 

[RPCookin]

We use them for larger parties, especially if there'll be a lot of kids. Not for the special holiday parties with just family, like Thanksgiving or Christmas, but when we have summer bbqs, or my son's team's meetings and parties.

So I voted "sometimes".

And yes, they get recycled. I still beat my neighbors every week by putting out 2 full garbage cans of recyclables, while they sometimes don't put out anything at all. I'm hoping to shame them into saving the planet, lol.

We don't get recycle pickup. We have to take it down to the bins ourselves at the Town Hall 4 blocks up the street (speaking of which we are due for a run this week). Here they do steel and aluminum cans, plastic bottles and jars, cardboard, and paper. All have to be placed in separate bins. They do not do glass.

We try to be as good as we can about it, but we aren't obsessive. At least the fact that they only pick up the roll-off bins once a week cuts down on the carbon footprint from what it would be if they did home pickup.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

I'm assuming the question refers to using them at home. Although I have used them (I mean, obviously, I think everyone has used paper plates at some point), I voted "never" because I don't use them around the house. The last time I bought any was for a cookout at a park. That was maybe two years ago, and I still have the leftovers sitting in the cupboard.

I am the "Keeper of the Family Paper stash" I get to haul it to all gatherings, someone always brings more, "in case we run out". When it over fills the tote I have it in I'm going to start making limits.

 

[caseydog]

We don't get recycle pickup. We have to take it down to the bins ourselves at the Town Hall 4 blocks up the street (speaking of which we are due for a run this week). Here they do steel and aluminum cans, plastic bottles and jars, cardboard, and paper. All have to be placed in separate bins. They do not do glass.

We try to be as good as we can about it, but we aren't obsessive. At least the fact that they only pick up the roll-off bins once a week cuts down on the carbon footprint from what it would be if they did home pickup.

We have separate trash and recycling carts. Black for trash, and blue for recycling. The trucks have a giant arm and claw that grabs them, and dumps them into the truck.

CD

 

[Caslon]

We never use them for our dinners, but almost always for lunch. Like PF, if it's for a sandwich sometimes for several days.

I find them very useful for food prep (mise en place).

I keep the heavy weight paper plates between skillets for storage, the very thin ones for between fine china plates.

I'm not concerned about landfills with paper plates but I think styrofoam plates should be outlawed.

I use them for almost the exact same things (only the 8" ones). Lunches, food prep, defrosting, etc. I too use them in my oven's bottom drawer to keep skillet bottom residue off the drawer bottom. I buy the lightly coated ones ("resists oils") by the hundred stacks. If I'm lucky, I get a stack where they're not pressed together so hard that I have to peel each one apart from the other. I find them extremely useful, indispensable.

 

[Rocklobster]

We have separate trash and recycling carts. Black for trash, and blue for recycling. The trucks have a giant arm and claw that grabs them, and dumps them into the truck.

CD

That metal bar across the front where they hook onto the bin to lift it breaks quite often..I fixed a couple of them with good ol' Canadian ingenuity..a piece of hockey stick, of course..

 

[Caslon]

I try and recycle, but not paper plates. I don't have the space to have two trash receptacles in my kitchen.

 

[buckytom]

That metal bar across the front where they hook onto the bin to lift it breaks quite often..I fixed a couple of them with good ol' Canadian ingenuity..a piece of hockey stick, of course..

Lol, my wife almost threw out a few of my old, broken hockey sticks when we moved.

They can be repurposed into so many things.

My old veggie garden looked like a CCM hockey stick cemetary before the plants grew in.

I jam the sliding door to the deck with a measured and cut Titan.

And you never know when you'll need a Mylec splint for an injury...

 

[Cooking Goddess]

I would need an "almost never" check box. We used to host a post-holidays gathering at our house every mid-January. I would get paper plates to use since we could get upwards of 30 people nibbling and drinking. We stopped holding those when my feet started to crap out on me a decade or a dozen years ago. I still have many of the paper plates left and pull one or two out about once a year. I'd better start using them up, though, so they still aren't here whenif we ever move.

We also use cloth napkins, cloth towels for produce, and rarely use paper towels. Even though we recycle everything that can be recycled, the recycling cart (our service uses the same bins that CD posted) goes to the curb about every third pick-up, or every six weeks. Usually it still isn't full. We get our garbage picked up every other week, and our cart is rarely more than half-full. They won't pick up any less often than every-other week, though.

I should take in other people's garbage for a small fee. Quite a few neighbors can't close the lid on their carts even with their weekly pick-up.

When it comes to our carbon footprint, we wear baby shoes.

 

[Caslon]

We also use cloth napkins, cloth towels for produce, and rarely use paper towels.

Paper napkins. They do not make a good medium for laying anything on... chopping...anything. It clings like you wouldn't believe, to both meats and vegetables. I end up having to peel it off.

 

[Cooking Goddess]

You can't dry anything with a paper napkin, just daintily blot your mouth. If you ate something sticky, there's a chance you'll end up with a paper moustache. I'm talking about blotting lettuce or drying a fruit like an apple with a paper towel. Used to do it in the past; haven't done it for...well, decades.

 

[caseydog]

That metal bar across the front where they hook onto the bin to lift it breaks quite often..I fixed a couple of them with good ol' Canadian ingenuity..a piece of hockey stick, of course..

Our trucks don't use that bar to lift. They grab with a big two-armed claw, and squeeze the trash carts. Every once in a while, one falls into the truck. It happened to me once.

CD

 

[tenspeed]

We have separate trash and recycling carts. Black for trash, and blue for recycling. The trucks have a giant arm and claw that grabs them, and dumps them into the truck.

CD

Wow, Casey, you must live in quite a neighborhood to have monogrammed trash bins. What does the W stand for?

 

[CakePoet]

Paper plates are only safe for microwaves if it is 100% paper, if it has coating it is not.