Revenge of the Packaging Vent A Thon - From Left Field.

Posted on July 6th, 2007 by Zach.
Categories: General, Systems of the World.

This is a slightly different vent about packaging, but have you ever noticed how hard it is to come out of a “to-go” food situation without three bags, fifteen forks, enough napkins to get mustard off all the mouths in Rhode Island, the sandwich you ordered wrapped in four layers of paper, and various coupons for future use?

Every time I go out to grab lunch from the office these days I come away with four pounds of packaging - to say nothing of the places that pack all of the above into a lovely Styrofoam box. So sweet, I will be throwing that away in about 3 seconds…

But this is not the messed up part, what concerns me most is that when I tell them I don’t want the (bag, napkins, silverware, etc) I feel guilty, like they might feel insulted somehow.

What is that about! Holy crap I have packaging guilt!

This is the weirdest reaction to potential trash I can imagine. Do I really feel they might be insulted? Really?

Whatever - most of the folks behind the counter just look confused. They have just put together about 10,000 sandwiches and packaged them in a perfect system of fluidity. And here I come screwing up the process: He really doesn’t want the napkins? Maybe I will give them to him anyway, just in case. They are as screwed up as I am at that moment.

At least we are in this thing together.

I know, I know, I should be putting last nights stir fry in Tupperware and bringing it from home - Saving money, packaging, and being super enviro.

It doesn’t happen.

First off, I live alone and rarely cook in general. In my situation I actually think cooking is more consumptive (Spoiler Alert: Here comes a rationale for my own behavior, I bet most of you can hardly wait). When I buy vegetables, I end up throwing half of them out as they slowly rot in my fridge. Also I definitely am using less packaging in my current state than buying food and cooking. I just am; being recycling obsessed, I basically have to take out the trash at home every two weeks - and that is usually a small shopping bag sized situation.

And even after that justification, the reality is that I hate eating leftovers at lunchtime - maybe more than Josh Dorfman hates recycling. Also, if I don’t get out of the office at lunch - interact with a couple of people, maybe walk to the river near my office for a second - I lose it.

Does anyone else feel bad not taking the packaging, or am I the only stupid kid doing this? I have no solution for any of this, I am just looking for outside validation.

Maybe I can bring my own plate and the restaurants can just load up the meal. How would that be? You want to see confused? Show up with your own plate at your favorite to-go food option.

While we are on this subject there is a new phenomenon in my nieghborhood in takeout (Again, don’t send me any email about my eating behaviors, I know they are messed up, I don’t need reminding). Many of the foods that used to come in the Styrofoam, now come in a slightly cheaper, but still solid version of Tupperware. At first I was very excited by this change, deeming it a fairly promising step. It has successfully supplied me with all the food storage vessels I could possibly want in my life. This must be killing Glad, RubberMaid, and anyone else who makes this stuff.

But now I am on the fence realizing that all this stuff still gets thrown away in most circumstances. I kind of hope it can be recycled, but because I use mine all the time and don’t throw it away, I am not actually sure this is true.

So do you use yours, or does it get chucked just like the white foam things? Do people recycle it? What up with this?

…And end rant.

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