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Eliminate Disposables in the Workplace
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Buy a set of flatware and dishes for the office kitchen and eliminate disposables. When visitors come to the office offer them a glass of water, coffee or tea in a mug or glass instead of using disposable items that litter the landfill.
Discussion 3 comments so far
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Bri
over 4 years ago
We have a stainless steel set but we like to reuse our disposable utensils as well.
lastnightilie
over 4 years ago
I want to see the sources for that. It doesn't really make sense. The amount of disposable paper/plastic utensils, dishware, etc. in landfills is unbelievable. What sort of water pollution are we talking about anyway? If people used natural soaps and ate all of their food, there would be no pollution at all. Personally I don't think anyone should be using disposable stuff that doesn't have to be. (Besides, you're forgetting that it isn't just a landfill issue - it's the manufacture of the plates, the manufacture of the packaging, and the transportation, usually long-distance. It's a bunch of unnecessary carbon, which is the whole point of this anyway.)
davidc
over 5 years ago
When I did the analysis for this at Yahoo!, it turned out that the break-even point was somewhere around 200+ uses of a reusable item for it to be better for the environment than disposable. You are basically trading off paper and landfill issues against water pollution. With the rate of loss and breakage, it wasn't a clear win. And without dishwashers, hand washing is even more inefficient and often involves a not insubstantial amount of paper towels to dry. So we decided to focus on other efforts. FWIW.