Plastic Utensils

College students, more so than any other demographic of people, are probably the biggest violators of conserving resources, especially when it comes to dining utensils. The fast pace lifestyle of your average college student requires quick and easy solutions to everything, especially when it comes to food. The absence of a personal kitchen means the absence of personal dining wear. Students eat few meals in their rooms, mostly relying on the convenience of dinning halls or snack shops to provide the majority of their diet. Rarely eating at "home" anymore leads to students owning fewer dishes than they once did, constantly relying on the cutlery and dishes provided to them by the places they eat at. The problem with this is that many of their dining locations only use plastic utensils, cups, and plates, etc. Eating in a dinning hall more than once, and sometimes twice a day, means the student body is going through a lot of dishes and silverware, most of which is meant for onetime use. I'm a culprit of this crime just like many of my fellow students.

I was sitting on the couch, eating my usual morning blueberry bagel, and spreading the cream cheese with a plastic knife I picked up on the table with the other plastic utensils, napkins, condiments, etc. and I got to thinking... I eat a bagel virtually every morning and use a one of these plastic knives, conveniently placed after the cash register, every single time. In one week, that's 7 knives, and in a year that's roughly over 350 little pieces of non-biodegradable plastic that I used once and threw away. So I decided right then that I would start carrying around with me my own utensils. I now keep one fork, one spoon, and one knife in my purse with me everywhere I go on campus and I was SHOCKED at how many times I had to dig into my bag to pull one out to use. It's hard to realize how often you use utensils when its so easy to just pick one up and then throw it away after the meal. I used a knife at breakfast to spread my cream cheese, I used a fork at lunch to eat my pasta, I used a spoon in the afternoon to eat some ice cream, and then I used all three at dinner that very same day! That's 6 pieces of plastic in one day that I would have used and just thrown away but instead was able to be more efficient and just brought my own. This idea seems so simple I'm wondering why I didn't think of it earlier. Think of the thousands of pounds of plastic that could be spared if cafeterias and fast food joints stopped offering utensils with their food. It would cuts costs for them and reduce our "one time use" mentality of cutlery. An estimated 100 billion pieces of plastic cutlery was produced last year by the U.S alone, most used once then thrown away, ending up in the earth's landfills and oceans to remain there forever.

After realizing the amount of plastic silverware I was wasting, I began thinking of all of the other little pieces of plastic I was unaware of and that I could eliminate from my life. Straws, lids, and plastic bags were three other easy things I could go without and that went along way as far as reducing my consumption and impact. I use about 3 straws, lids, and bags a day but not anymore! Eliminating these things from my life is in addition to not buying non-essentials at the store anymore. My goal is to reduce my consumption, and thus dependency, on trivial but environmentally harmful things, reuse what I already own, and recycle what I am forced to discard of. I challenge readers to do the same. What can you do without? I bet if you examine your daily life you could easily find 10 different things that aren't necessary and that are meant as a wasteful, one-time use object. If you want to learn some neat ways to recycle your plastic utensils if you must use them visit www.world.org/reuse/plastic.utensils or if you are looking to buy more environmentally friendly dinning related products visit www.ecoproductsstore.com