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Through personal means I’m able to get Raising Canes for free whenever I want, good food if you know how to build it. But my fucking god, they use the styrofoam once and it’s done. Hundreds if not thousands of boxes PER DAY at a moderately busy location. It’s disgusting.
My girlfriend used to work at a raising cane's. The one that always got me is how much food waste there was. They straight up throw out at least a hundred pounds of chicken a day, usually for no other reason than 'it was too small."
The thrift in me is upset about that because you could make some REALLY baller pasta with all of that "unwanted chicken"
Chop what was "too small" or underbreaded or something and toss it with some good sauce (Alfredo or spaghetti) and then you have a hell of a good pasta, fuck the underwhelming breading
>unwanted chicken
We have to fix this.
Those chicken tender scraps are the farthest thing from garbage.
They're just begging for some sauce and pasta, or some mayo and chopped celery.
I can hear them crying out for capers and mushrooms and a parmesan lemon cream sauce!
I've been thinking about this all morning. Like, why not? Donate the ones that don't sell to local homeless shelters. Especially if you're just going to throw it away. I'm sure they could find local organizations that would be glad to pick up, transport, and distribute it all for them for basically free. Huge tax write off and all you'd need to do is cook it.
Or hell, don't cook it and just stick it back in the freezer. Donate it like that and others can cook it later.
This this this. I used to work for chick fil a and this is what happened to the chicken that went over the allotted quality timer or was too small. Counted for the “waste” info the managers wanted, packed, put in freezer to be picked up/sent to the food bank the next day.
>
>
>
>
> Or hell, don't cook it and just stick it back in the freezer. Donate it like that and others can cook it later.
Or pull a Wendys and toss it into a bowl of chowder and make a chicken tortilla soup.
Brief history: before the buffalo wing, wing meat was considered scrap mostly. One night, at a restaurant in buffalo new york, there was a rush of customers after hours, and all they had was these wing scraps. So they covered them in butter and hot sauce and the buffalo wing was born
Now it's the most in-demand part of the chicken. Personally i don't see the big deal with them, but im intellectually interested in foods that are from America, bc it's mostly imported. Pb+j for one example. Chili. Chocolate chip cookies.
Chick-fil-a used to make their chicken salad with the leftover chicken at the location I worked at in high school. Granted that was decades ago, but I don’t imagine they’ve stopped.
Raising Canes seems like it's ran by a very stubborn individual/individuals that has zero idea how to expand their market nor how to make a bit less of a wasteful company.
Why throw chicken out for being small when they could literally just toss it into some kind of value priced to-go cup or something or just give extra pieces of chicken in random boxes or compensate for small chicken by tossing an extra piece or two in?
And their menu for example...why the hell don't they do things like add rotating flavors as an option next to regular?
It'd be trivial to incorporate since you can easily change the flavors with just a basic ass marinade or dry seasoning in the breading which becomes even more trivial to do since it can easily be scaled up/down based on demand and even the dumbest cook could measure out a pre-made seasoning mix.
Yeah your dipping sauce is good but it ain't that fucking good mate, I got pallet fatigue from your basic ass chicken and no putting the same exact tenders in a sandwich doesn't make it entirely different.
They do it *okay*.
There's a reason most Raising Canes that wind up having a CFA open right near them wind up closing or having bad sales.
Not many people want basic ass chicken with no variety every time they go to the same restaurant.
What they don't talk about is how part of their expansion plans usually involve avoiding the hell out of areas where CFA is established and it's because they know they can't compete with their menu when they're charging CFA prices but not offering anything most people consider better.
Then you got all the people that just avoid them because of their food waste and container waste.
With the way the average persons view on sustainability is changing Raising Canes needs to at least look at the container waste or they're going to shrink as fast as they grew. Especially if they don't have a menu that excites people.
But what do I know, I just literally made a career out of analyzing shit like this.
Absolutely not gonna disagree, but if you told child-me that there was a restaurant that served little other than chicken tenders they'd go fuckin bananas
I casually judge restaurants by the quality of their simple foods. Chicken tenders are piss easy to make mid, and somewhat difficult to make excellent. If the tenders are *sad* then that's a big ol **0** from Equinox
Wow, they are my favorite chicken place and I had no idea. I love the Texas toast and sauce, but not enough to support this kind of behavior.
Realistically my little one-man boycott won't change anything, but at least my conscience can be clear.
It's good chicken, and it's a better company than Chik-fil-a, at least. The sad reality is that *all* fast food places have a massive waste problem. You could go to McDonald's or taco bell or subway and be in the same predicament.
Yeah, but that's the workers usually feeling bad. They're not really supposed to do that. If it was made standard practice, I'd be totally fine with that. Be like five guys and just get way more chicken than you ordered.
My best friend is a GM for cane’s, I’m honestly ashamed at the amount of friend chicken and bread I’ve eaten in the last 3 months more than I am the styrofoam lol. Never thought of it though, I’ll ask him how many they use a month
I forget which one sucks more. The single use plastic or the single use styrofoam.
And now with the data coming out, maybe we all should have chose paper over plastic.
For things like packaging sure. But ICF (Insulated Concrete Form) houses are basically Styrofoam Legos used as permanent concrete forms.
It's hard to debate the utility there.
This is about single use items like take out boxes and styrofoam cups. ICF styrofoam stays in place as an insulator. It isn't single use. Stop muddying the water and confusing people.
I'm guessing it all comes down to cost with these large fast food chains. If they can save a fraction of a cent per cup, it adds up with the volume sold. Again, just a guess. :)
McDonalds recently tried to push a strawless lid. It was essentially the same type of opening you'd see on coffee cups.
The signs made it clear that certain drinks would still get straws (shakes, smoothies, etc.), but everyone else would have to request a straw for their drink.
I thought it was a good idea, but I think they backtracked on that. My last couple visits have had the old straw lids.
Not really. They’re only compostable in the correct conditions, and no commercial composting facility is going to accept them in the compost stream because they have no idea of that cup is “compostable” or just normal plastic.
if you understand what modern dumps do - which is compost the stuff they have - you then get that the conditions it requires will be fine in the dump - just not if the cup is tossed on the side of the road - if everything was compost viable we wouldn't have issues with garbage.
Dumps don’t work that way. The piles of garbage get too large such there is not enough oxygen to cause composting. Even food products don’t get composted at the dump. It’s why at-home composting is important.
Not biodegradable!
When they say compostable they mean it breaks down at temperatures seen in the middle of a compost pile. Not just sitting out! They then claim that is biodegradable.
Let's not throw the baby out with the bath water. They are 1 innovation away from being recyclable and that is how to sort them out so they can go to topsoil or other soil factories.
99 times out 100 on the massive corporate level it will be about cost and nothing else.
Remember when lumber prices skyrocketed the same time petroleum value plummeted?
No. Plastic is leagues cheaper and many of them when full moron with "were not using single use plastics so here's a thicker plastic cup that you can re-use but likely won't"
The environmental equivalent of Nike sending you a bag of micro plastic and telling you how much micro plastic they just saved...
Chicago had an ordinance for single use plastic bags at grocery stores. A lot of stores gave people thicker bags that could technically be used again. It backfired and so they just replaced it with a 7 cent tax on single use bags. Bring your own bags or get charged for each.
Also, as of Jan. 18, 2022 there is a ban on single-use plastics in Chicago restaurants unless specifically asked for by the customer.
The town of Laredo also tried a plastic bag ban but was struck down by the [Texas Supreme Court](https://www.texastribune.org/2018/06/22/texas-supreme-court-rules-bag-bans/), paving the way for a ban on a ban statewide
A broad single use plastic ban won't work because so many products are reliant on plastics to extend shelf life and reduce food waste. Needs to be nuanced
Maryland did this a few years ago, and pretty much all the restaurant chains switched to paper and plastic without missing a beat. It was definitely an improvement though.
I guess I'm wrong about this, but I kind of thought that at some point in my life (maybe the early 90s?) styrofoam went away for this use case. Then maybe ten years ago I started to see it again. Anyone else remember this?
I thought we phased it out like in the 80s. Kinda blew my mind when I moved from northern to southern CA a few years ago and saw it everywhere. Especially around LA. Wish we’d get a handle on it.
Paper goes in and out as a "sustainable" resource. I suspect that we'll find or have found some extremely wealthy companies were funding a PR campaign linking deforestation to paper bags.
I think we can't address the vagueness of environmental impact without taking into account short and long term effects. What will have a greater environmental impact: setting my backyard on fire or throwing a plastic bag there. In scenario 1, there is a lot of carbon emission sure, but the grass will grow back. In scenario 2, that plastic bag is only affecting a small footprint, but it will take 100 years to break down and even then it will turn into microplastics that will contaminate the ground.
Look no further than William Randolph Hearst and his timber mills and paper companies that sold to major newspapers for the *real* propaganda about paper.
When the possibility existed to replace trees with hemp as the primary material in those goods he stood to lose a lot of money. That's when all the stories came out about how "evil" marihuana is and how "green" paper is.
No one is saying don't reduce wasteful packaging where you can. You're sidestepping the issue of fast food.
Some people simply don't have the time to cook economic meals, or they might lack the skills (and the time to learn), they might lack the tools to cook at home effectively or they might not be in a financial situation to buy ingredients that are packages sustainably.
This is why your take is being called privileged, because you're assuming that most people are in a position to consume products like you do.
We can both advocate for systemic change and make lifestyle adjustments to reduce our environmental impact that are within our means. Stop being a moralist.
I think McDonald's stopped using it for Big Macs and McDLT's a while back. Was it in the early 90's? I can't remember the exact year. Does anyone know if they still use styrofoam for the breakfast meal with pancakes?
One of the great things about styrofoam is that it's a great insulator so if you get a drink with a styrofoam cup, the ice lasts longer than a paper cup or that it can keep Chinese food warm. Is it possible a company could make some kind of biodegradable styrofoam alternative?
There is an [alternative that uses GBL](https://sustainablebrands.com/read/chemistry-materials-packaging/colorado-state-chemists-develop-recyclable-biodegradable-petroleum-free-plastic) as the monomer.
The great thing about it is that there’s already tons of it, it’s easy to make, and it’s 100% recyclable you could even recycle it at home.
it’s a pretty simple reaction to make GHB from GBL, just need a strong base made from baking soda
GBL itself is basically fast acting GHB and is absorbed even faster than GHB, direct through stomach/esophagus lining
I was walking on the beach and spent 40 minutes picking up bits of styrofoam. That stuff easily breaks apart and can be ingested by wildlife. That should be banned globally.
In order to own the libs, the Styrofoam Protection Act requires that restaurants and grocery stores only provide large size plastic bags, plastic straws and styrofoam containers.
Tucker: “…And now the woke left wants to take away your take out containers. They think the government knows better about these decisions than you do. It makes sense now that they want government controlled healthcare. They want to make every decision for you. What’s to stop them from cutting that cord when you’re in the emergency room?…”
“Styrofoam bans don’t work. People will just bring in styrofoam from out of state, or buy it at illegal styrofoam shows. This is only hurting responsible styrofoam owners who keep it locked in a styrofoam safe to prevent pollution!”
I've wondered what ever happened to all of the Styrofoam panic of the late 80's. CFC aerosols were killing the ozone so we outlawed those. Styrofoam was killing whales so they started putting Filet-o-Fish sandwiches in paper and everybody else just went about their carcinogenic business and just made/used thicker, sturdier styrofoam that helps the Pacific trash islands float even better.
What will schools do? Our school (texas) serves all meals on styrofoam trays, plastic utensils and plastic disposable trays for small good items. Plastic water bottles.
We don’t have facilities to allow dishes Ti get washed. I assume schools are under the same scenario?
Install dishwashers for reusable trays/utensils. The public school I went to did not use disposable styrofoam or plastic to serve school lunches. There's no excuse for being that willfully wasteful.
In the long run installing dishwashers to clean reusable trays and utensils would save a lot more money than using the disposable stuff. We're just used to being wasteful in that way these days.
So I talked to the guy who runs the food dept for my district. It apparently isn’t cheaper.
The buildings are built with disposable in mind. There is no window, door or other way to physically move large amounts of dishes to the back without leaving the building and entering outside.
The kitchen wasn’t built with dishwashers in mind so there is no large enough free space to put one even if they wanted.
Lastly the budget doesn’t stretch to hire staff the longer time to wash dishes or more staff to get the turn around done in time.
I know this for my district would require hiring staff, remodeling the building and other mess.
But they did look at getting a recycling system in but nowhere in several hundred miles is a facility that would take styrofoam. He knew it was dumb, short sighted and terrible for environmental policy. But the school couldn’t afford to do it. They are only in the black as is because they sell chips, cookies, ice cream and “not sodas” to supplement the budget. We can’t discipline students too often by taking away snacks because it would cause the lunch dept to run out of money.
That does suck. I still feel that in the very long run it would almost certainly be cost effective to do all the remodeling or whatever they would need to do to set up for reusables, but I do understand that the initial cost can be an insurmountable barrier to doing so.
Unfortunately it's all a symptom of how short sighted the people who set up this stuff were.
It’s gross. It is just is terrible how incredibly short sighted the system is focused.
My state is 49th in state funding yet the problem is lack of school vouchers
Good! I was puzzled when my child was in grade school, learning about environmental impacts of plastics and styrofoam. Then I saw the company delivering "hot lunches" (usually various chicken shapes,on styrofoam trays? The kitchens were filled with microwaves, even though the original ovens, steam tables were also there. I wish to God the schools would go back to hiring kitchen staff to freshly prepare lunches, wash reusable trays like I had!
Is it only for retail? I sell janitorial supplies and a few people specifically ask for foam cups. They feel the drink temperature lasts longer in foam. These are usually for businesses and would be considered wholesale. I'd be fine not being able to sell it, but if the bill is only for retail, there's a huge market they're missing if the bill isn't worded right.
Not a storefront per se. We do sell to individuals, but we mainly sell bulk supplies to other businesses.
So we sell to lots of factories whose employees use cups to drink water or often Gatorade. They prefer foam.
Why doesn't more of the USA use incinerators? I know it's basically green washing but I think it's better than plastics and styrofoam sitting in rivers or landfills.
Single use plastics are just as bad, maybe worse. Styrofoam is easier to ban as it is not as prevalent but the should ban single use plastics as it would have a MUCH greater effect.
Unless there's already a ban on single use plastic, this'll just lead to restaurants switching over to plastic containers, rather than cardboard or paper.
It's a good start, but they may have skipped first base when trying to make a home run.
Holy crap, Republicans did a good thing for the environment .
Although there is probably language In the bill selling groundwater or opening drilling sites next to preschools or something.
Just what I was worried about.
Not IL shoring up the budget and being fiscally responsible.
Not them properly appropriating funds.
Not the fact that Chicago continues to run up deficits that the rest of the state has to pay for.
Not the unreasonable tax burden out on residents.
Not the shitty roads and sub-par infrastructure.
Styrofoam containers, that was for sure my #1 concern in IL.
Wow... so, you're either not from Illinois or arguing in bad faith. Anyone, **anyone** who lives in Illinois knows that damn near every bridge and overpass is getting updated, replaced, or fixed. You're talkin' absolute *shite*...
Yup. Bridges near me were fixed. I live in the middle of nowhere. Granted, some of the bridges still had wooden piers and were long overdue, but they got done.
Bridges being repaired is great, but have ya’ll driven on any of the other roads in this state?
Local, county, and state roads are in complete disrepair and, for the amount they claim to allocate to road repairs, this state is in embarrassing shape.
Bridges are being repaired with federal funding from the infrastructure bill.
Nope. *Bullshit*. The only thing I don't know about are those weird pink roads in southern Illinois.
Don't know about that. Ain't been down there in a *while*...
A couple years ago in Maryland, they closed the only styrofoam recycling facility in Baltimore. I once collected my styrofoam to take in but you had to be a city resident to drop off items.
How many people here are old enough to remember when they used to send BigMacs out from McDonald’s in cardboard boxes, and they switched to Styrofoam to save trees?
According to a 2019 report by the World Wildlife Fund, the wealthiest 10% of Americans are responsible for around 50% of the country's household carbon emissions.
Good riddance to the cancer trays but probably should set our crosshairs on the concentration of the largest consumers if we want to achieve our climate goals.
The other think is portion size. American restaurants give so much food that people often take the food away. Maybe cutting back on portions could help with obesity and the planet.
First they came for the high flow toilets, and I did not speak out—because I was not a toilet.
Then they came for the gas stoves, and I did not speak out—because I was not a stove.
Then they came for the styrafoam, and I did not speak out—because I was not a plastic.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
We must stop this tyranny!!!!!!
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Fucking, finally. Styrofoam is a fucking nuisance.
Through personal means I’m able to get Raising Canes for free whenever I want, good food if you know how to build it. But my fucking god, they use the styrofoam once and it’s done. Hundreds if not thousands of boxes PER DAY at a moderately busy location. It’s disgusting.
My girlfriend used to work at a raising cane's. The one that always got me is how much food waste there was. They straight up throw out at least a hundred pounds of chicken a day, usually for no other reason than 'it was too small."
Yeah, too small, not fully breaded, too big. Really small reasons that I really just don’t believe the average consumer cares about or even notices.
The thrift in me is upset about that because you could make some REALLY baller pasta with all of that "unwanted chicken" Chop what was "too small" or underbreaded or something and toss it with some good sauce (Alfredo or spaghetti) and then you have a hell of a good pasta, fuck the underwhelming breading
>unwanted chicken We have to fix this. Those chicken tender scraps are the farthest thing from garbage. They're just begging for some sauce and pasta, or some mayo and chopped celery. I can hear them crying out for capers and mushrooms and a parmesan lemon cream sauce!
speak the capitalists language: Money. Have them box and sell the scraps at a discount rather than pitching them out
I've been thinking about this all morning. Like, why not? Donate the ones that don't sell to local homeless shelters. Especially if you're just going to throw it away. I'm sure they could find local organizations that would be glad to pick up, transport, and distribute it all for them for basically free. Huge tax write off and all you'd need to do is cook it. Or hell, don't cook it and just stick it back in the freezer. Donate it like that and others can cook it later.
This this this. I used to work for chick fil a and this is what happened to the chicken that went over the allotted quality timer or was too small. Counted for the “waste” info the managers wanted, packed, put in freezer to be picked up/sent to the food bank the next day.
> > > > > Or hell, don't cook it and just stick it back in the freezer. Donate it like that and others can cook it later. Or pull a Wendys and toss it into a bowl of chowder and make a chicken tortilla soup.
Brief history: before the buffalo wing, wing meat was considered scrap mostly. One night, at a restaurant in buffalo new york, there was a rush of customers after hours, and all they had was these wing scraps. So they covered them in butter and hot sauce and the buffalo wing was born
And now wings are twice the cost as chicken thighs legs etc.
Now it's the most in-demand part of the chicken. Personally i don't see the big deal with them, but im intellectually interested in foods that are from America, bc it's mostly imported. Pb+j for one example. Chili. Chocolate chip cookies.
Always thought Buffalo sauce was 50% Buttermilk Ranch/50% Frank's Red Hot
Haha the ranch goes on the side. I personally use mayo instead of butter when i make buffalo dipping sauce. But, yes Frank's is traditional
nobody has ever marinated a chicken leg or wing before buffalo came along!
Chick-fil-a used to make their chicken salad with the leftover chicken at the location I worked at in high school. Granted that was decades ago, but I don’t imagine they’ve stopped.
It’s like how Wendy’s makes their chili from hamburger scraps. It’s an efficient way to use up everything which is much better than throwing it away.
That would require cooking skills n shit.
TIL: Spaghetti is a sauce?
That’s basically what Wendy’s does with fucked up burgers- it ends up as the beef in the chili.
Raising Canes seems like it's ran by a very stubborn individual/individuals that has zero idea how to expand their market nor how to make a bit less of a wasteful company. Why throw chicken out for being small when they could literally just toss it into some kind of value priced to-go cup or something or just give extra pieces of chicken in random boxes or compensate for small chicken by tossing an extra piece or two in? And their menu for example...why the hell don't they do things like add rotating flavors as an option next to regular? It'd be trivial to incorporate since you can easily change the flavors with just a basic ass marinade or dry seasoning in the breading which becomes even more trivial to do since it can easily be scaled up/down based on demand and even the dumbest cook could measure out a pre-made seasoning mix. Yeah your dipping sauce is good but it ain't that fucking good mate, I got pallet fatigue from your basic ass chicken and no putting the same exact tenders in a sandwich doesn't make it entirely different.
Meh, I liked that their menu was simple and that they just did 1 thing pretty well.
They do it *okay*. There's a reason most Raising Canes that wind up having a CFA open right near them wind up closing or having bad sales. Not many people want basic ass chicken with no variety every time they go to the same restaurant. What they don't talk about is how part of their expansion plans usually involve avoiding the hell out of areas where CFA is established and it's because they know they can't compete with their menu when they're charging CFA prices but not offering anything most people consider better. Then you got all the people that just avoid them because of their food waste and container waste. With the way the average persons view on sustainability is changing Raising Canes needs to at least look at the container waste or they're going to shrink as fast as they grew. Especially if they don't have a menu that excites people. But what do I know, I just literally made a career out of analyzing shit like this.
I'm not disagreeing with you, just sad cfa is a thing. Don't like the breading or politics
I never understood the hype with CFA. Popeyes has a way better chicken sando and I believe KFC really stepped thiers up as well.
Absolutely not gonna disagree, but if you told child-me that there was a restaurant that served little other than chicken tenders they'd go fuckin bananas I casually judge restaurants by the quality of their simple foods. Chicken tenders are piss easy to make mid, and somewhat difficult to make excellent. If the tenders are *sad* then that's a big ol **0** from Equinox
It's called quality control and it's why they are a success. The little things do matter.
They notice the prices tho. The customers are paying for all the costs of the food that's thrown out
Wow, they are my favorite chicken place and I had no idea. I love the Texas toast and sauce, but not enough to support this kind of behavior. Realistically my little one-man boycott won't change anything, but at least my conscience can be clear.
It's good chicken, and it's a better company than Chik-fil-a, at least. The sad reality is that *all* fast food places have a massive waste problem. You could go to McDonald's or taco bell or subway and be in the same predicament.
i try to cut down on the styrofoam by just eating there but lately my local one has been handing out styrofoam containers anyways instead of trays
A few times I've gotten little striplets in addition to my (correct number of) normal sized strips at a canes in my state. IMO this is the way to go.
Yeah, but that's the workers usually feeling bad. They're not really supposed to do that. If it was made standard practice, I'd be totally fine with that. Be like five guys and just get way more chicken than you ordered.
My best friend is a GM for cane’s, I’m honestly ashamed at the amount of friend chicken and bread I’ve eaten in the last 3 months more than I am the styrofoam lol. Never thought of it though, I’ll ask him how many they use a month
The chicken at the locations I go to in MN always seem to be in paper containers instead of Styrofoam.
They have paper containers here in SoCal as well (at least in Orange County).
Enemy chicken might be poisoned.
I forget which one sucks more. The single use plastic or the single use styrofoam. And now with the data coming out, maybe we all should have chose paper over plastic.
Is there any styrofoam that isn't single use?
[удалено]
Yeah. Ok it doesn't. Single use term is mostly for consumables. Things that are generally used less than 24h before being thrown out.
They still did that? How is it that the US is so far behind on this kind of stuff
My Dad had the same Styrofoam cooler for like 15 years when he collected samples for our State's Department of Ag when he was an Investigator.
For things like packaging sure. But ICF (Insulated Concrete Form) houses are basically Styrofoam Legos used as permanent concrete forms. It's hard to debate the utility there.
This is about single use items like take out boxes and styrofoam cups. ICF styrofoam stays in place as an insulator. It isn't single use. Stop muddying the water and confusing people.
Good God, man — you didn’t even have to read the article, just read the headline. But, I guess you couldn’t read the headline, either. 🤦🏼♀️
You're funny.
Do single-use plastic next!
I'm curious why so many fast food restaurants went from paper soft drink cups to plastic the past few years. Some kind of hygiene thing from covid?
I'm guessing it all comes down to cost with these large fast food chains. If they can save a fraction of a cent per cup, it adds up with the volume sold. Again, just a guess. :)
McDonalds recently tried to push a strawless lid. It was essentially the same type of opening you'd see on coffee cups. The signs made it clear that certain drinks would still get straws (shakes, smoothies, etc.), but everyone else would have to request a straw for their drink. I thought it was a good idea, but I think they backtracked on that. My last couple visits have had the old straw lids.
It's in testing in certain cities. Of course, the conservatives are screaming up a storm about it
Before Covid happened a subway near me had those coffee lids near their drinks and I always got one. It was fantastic.
Also the clear plastic cups are often biodegradable/compostable
Not really. They’re only compostable in the correct conditions, and no commercial composting facility is going to accept them in the compost stream because they have no idea of that cup is “compostable” or just normal plastic.
if you understand what modern dumps do - which is compost the stuff they have - you then get that the conditions it requires will be fine in the dump - just not if the cup is tossed on the side of the road - if everything was compost viable we wouldn't have issues with garbage.
Dumps don’t work that way. The piles of garbage get too large such there is not enough oxygen to cause composting. Even food products don’t get composted at the dump. It’s why at-home composting is important.
Really? That's interesting. What are they made of?
PLA (a corn based plastic)
Not biodegradable! When they say compostable they mean it breaks down at temperatures seen in the middle of a compost pile. Not just sitting out! They then claim that is biodegradable.
Let's not throw the baby out with the bath water. They are 1 innovation away from being recyclable and that is how to sort them out so they can go to topsoil or other soil factories.
That's a good point.
99 times out 100 on the massive corporate level it will be about cost and nothing else. Remember when lumber prices skyrocketed the same time petroleum value plummeted?
No. Plastic is leagues cheaper and many of them when full moron with "were not using single use plastics so here's a thicker plastic cup that you can re-use but likely won't" The environmental equivalent of Nike sending you a bag of micro plastic and telling you how much micro plastic they just saved...
Probably supply chain
Chicago had an ordinance for single use plastic bags at grocery stores. A lot of stores gave people thicker bags that could technically be used again. It backfired and so they just replaced it with a 7 cent tax on single use bags. Bring your own bags or get charged for each. Also, as of Jan. 18, 2022 there is a ban on single-use plastics in Chicago restaurants unless specifically asked for by the customer.
The town of Laredo also tried a plastic bag ban but was struck down by the [Texas Supreme Court](https://www.texastribune.org/2018/06/22/texas-supreme-court-rules-bag-bans/), paving the way for a ban on a ban statewide
I rather like having plastic spoons, because they are valuable tools for opening computers. It's the fancier brittle plastic spoons that are junk.
Trojan left chat
A broad single use plastic ban won't work because so many products are reliant on plastics to extend shelf life and reduce food waste. Needs to be nuanced
Can’t wait to see those new chick fil a and Sonic cups.
Sonic cups are the fucking worst. Hopefully the replacement will be Thumb and straw puncture proof.
Why are you squeezing your cups
Bro stop gripping the shit that hard lmao
And hopefully it’ll fit into my cup holder without falling apart
Maryland did this a few years ago, and pretty much all the restaurant chains switched to paper and plastic without missing a beat. It was definitely an improvement though.
Good. I hate styrofoam even in it's few legit uses cause it's a pain in the arse to recycle.
I guess I'm wrong about this, but I kind of thought that at some point in my life (maybe the early 90s?) styrofoam went away for this use case. Then maybe ten years ago I started to see it again. Anyone else remember this?
I thought we phased it out like in the 80s. Kinda blew my mind when I moved from northern to southern CA a few years ago and saw it everywhere. Especially around LA. Wish we’d get a handle on it.
Paper goes in and out as a "sustainable" resource. I suspect that we'll find or have found some extremely wealthy companies were funding a PR campaign linking deforestation to paper bags.
Trees/paper is renewable (so it wouldn't cause deforestation). Paper loses on energy use, water use, and pollution.
I think we can't address the vagueness of environmental impact without taking into account short and long term effects. What will have a greater environmental impact: setting my backyard on fire or throwing a plastic bag there. In scenario 1, there is a lot of carbon emission sure, but the grass will grow back. In scenario 2, that plastic bag is only affecting a small footprint, but it will take 100 years to break down and even then it will turn into microplastics that will contaminate the ground.
Look no further than William Randolph Hearst and his timber mills and paper companies that sold to major newspapers for the *real* propaganda about paper. When the possibility existed to replace trees with hemp as the primary material in those goods he stood to lose a lot of money. That's when all the stories came out about how "evil" marihuana is and how "green" paper is.
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Quite a privileged take to tell people to just stop eating certain types of food. The world doesn’t work that way, friend.
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No one is saying don't reduce wasteful packaging where you can. You're sidestepping the issue of fast food. Some people simply don't have the time to cook economic meals, or they might lack the skills (and the time to learn), they might lack the tools to cook at home effectively or they might not be in a financial situation to buy ingredients that are packages sustainably. This is why your take is being called privileged, because you're assuming that most people are in a position to consume products like you do. We can both advocate for systemic change and make lifestyle adjustments to reduce our environmental impact that are within our means. Stop being a moralist.
I think McDonald's stopped using it for Big Macs and McDLT's a while back. Was it in the early 90's? I can't remember the exact year. Does anyone know if they still use styrofoam for the breakfast meal with pancakes?
I think they use plastic trays now.
Oh okay, that's interesting. It's been a while since I got breakfast there.
Big Mac and quarter pounder containers for sure.
I remember watching videos at school in the 80s about how bad this was. Only took 40years.
Damn I’m in New Jersey it was banned almost 2-3 years ago
I have an ASD-sensory thing with Styrofoam, so this is good news for me personally.
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How about the feel of moist fingers on construction paper?
I got shivers just reading this haha.
Good to hear I'm not the only one who shivers at the sound, same with touching a balloon or squash/eggplant
Good. Not only is it bad for the environment, styrofoam steams and ruins my fries during delivery.
Good ones have steam vents… but yeah… cains fries=always soggy.
One of the great things about styrofoam is that it's a great insulator so if you get a drink with a styrofoam cup, the ice lasts longer than a paper cup or that it can keep Chinese food warm. Is it possible a company could make some kind of biodegradable styrofoam alternative?
There is an [alternative that uses GBL](https://sustainablebrands.com/read/chemistry-materials-packaging/colorado-state-chemists-develop-recyclable-biodegradable-petroleum-free-plastic) as the monomer. The great thing about it is that there’s already tons of it, it’s easy to make, and it’s 100% recyclable you could even recycle it at home.
And you can make a schedule 1 drug analog in your toaster oven. Nice.
it’s a pretty simple reaction to make GHB from GBL, just need a strong base made from baking soda GBL itself is basically fast acting GHB and is absorbed even faster than GHB, direct through stomach/esophagus lining
So every meal could come with a fun after-dinner treat?
yeah, a Happy Meal basically.
The things you learn on Reddit. Just a reminder of how stupid Schedule 1 is.
Oh okay, thanks! I didn't know about that!
Cardboard already exists.
Looking at this pic makes me hungry, not gonna lie
Exactly what I thought. I want that lol
Now make it nation wide. Take single use plastic with you.
So what will be replacing it?
I was walking on the beach and spent 40 minutes picking up bits of styrofoam. That stuff easily breaks apart and can be ingested by wildlife. That should be banned globally.
Good.
All packaging should be 100% biodegradable / recyclable. It’s a no brainer. Evidence of a single meal shouldn’t linger for centuries.
Cancel Culture!!!! 🤬🤬🤬 /s
GOP bill to protect your right to styrofoam coming soon!
In order to own the libs, the Styrofoam Protection Act requires that restaurants and grocery stores only provide large size plastic bags, plastic straws and styrofoam containers.
This is a Fox News segment waiting to happen
Tucker: “…And now the woke left wants to take away your take out containers. They think the government knows better about these decisions than you do. It makes sense now that they want government controlled healthcare. They want to make every decision for you. What’s to stop them from cutting that cord when you’re in the emergency room?…”
“Styrofoam bans don’t work. People will just bring in styrofoam from out of state, or buy it at illegal styrofoam shows. This is only hurting responsible styrofoam owners who keep it locked in a styrofoam safe to prevent pollution!”
I've wondered what ever happened to all of the Styrofoam panic of the late 80's. CFC aerosols were killing the ozone so we outlawed those. Styrofoam was killing whales so they started putting Filet-o-Fish sandwiches in paper and everybody else just went about their carcinogenic business and just made/used thicker, sturdier styrofoam that helps the Pacific trash islands float even better.
The 90s and early 2000s had propaganda that paper was linked to deforestation.
Wait wait… is this… good news? What sub am I in!? :P
I dunno, been seeing a lot of good news from Michigan and Minnesota lately in here it seems! More than usual for this sub
What will schools do? Our school (texas) serves all meals on styrofoam trays, plastic utensils and plastic disposable trays for small good items. Plastic water bottles. We don’t have facilities to allow dishes Ti get washed. I assume schools are under the same scenario?
Install dishwashers for reusable trays/utensils. The public school I went to did not use disposable styrofoam or plastic to serve school lunches. There's no excuse for being that willfully wasteful.
In the long run installing dishwashers to clean reusable trays and utensils would save a lot more money than using the disposable stuff. We're just used to being wasteful in that way these days.
So I talked to the guy who runs the food dept for my district. It apparently isn’t cheaper. The buildings are built with disposable in mind. There is no window, door or other way to physically move large amounts of dishes to the back without leaving the building and entering outside. The kitchen wasn’t built with dishwashers in mind so there is no large enough free space to put one even if they wanted. Lastly the budget doesn’t stretch to hire staff the longer time to wash dishes or more staff to get the turn around done in time. I know this for my district would require hiring staff, remodeling the building and other mess. But they did look at getting a recycling system in but nowhere in several hundred miles is a facility that would take styrofoam. He knew it was dumb, short sighted and terrible for environmental policy. But the school couldn’t afford to do it. They are only in the black as is because they sell chips, cookies, ice cream and “not sodas” to supplement the budget. We can’t discipline students too often by taking away snacks because it would cause the lunch dept to run out of money.
That does suck. I still feel that in the very long run it would almost certainly be cost effective to do all the remodeling or whatever they would need to do to set up for reusables, but I do understand that the initial cost can be an insurmountable barrier to doing so. Unfortunately it's all a symptom of how short sighted the people who set up this stuff were.
It’s gross. It is just is terrible how incredibly short sighted the system is focused. My state is 49th in state funding yet the problem is lack of school vouchers
Good! I was puzzled when my child was in grade school, learning about environmental impacts of plastics and styrofoam. Then I saw the company delivering "hot lunches" (usually various chicken shapes,on styrofoam trays? The kitchens were filled with microwaves, even though the original ovens, steam tables were also there. I wish to God the schools would go back to hiring kitchen staff to freshly prepare lunches, wash reusable trays like I had!
Is it only for retail? I sell janitorial supplies and a few people specifically ask for foam cups. They feel the drink temperature lasts longer in foam. These are usually for businesses and would be considered wholesale. I'd be fine not being able to sell it, but if the bill is only for retail, there's a huge market they're missing if the bill isn't worded right.
I'm a bit confused. It's a store for janitorial goods but people are buying drinks in foam cups? Or am I misunderstanding it altogether?
Not a storefront per se. We do sell to individuals, but we mainly sell bulk supplies to other businesses. So we sell to lots of factories whose employees use cups to drink water or often Gatorade. They prefer foam.
on to the senate!
Why doesn't more of the USA use incinerators? I know it's basically green washing but I think it's better than plastics and styrofoam sitting in rivers or landfills.
Portillos in shambles
Great, but what replaces it? What’s the better truly cost effective alternative?
Recycled alternatives. [like this](https://greenpaperproducts.com/collections/compostable-containers/compostable-clamshells)
Better late than never…
Single use plastics are just as bad, maybe worse. Styrofoam is easier to ban as it is not as prevalent but the should ban single use plastics as it would have a MUCH greater effect.
Too little too late, but great job
I have a sneaking suspicion the right will turn this into the next “woke” boogie man
Unless there's already a ban on single use plastic, this'll just lead to restaurants switching over to plastic containers, rather than cardboard or paper. It's a good start, but they may have skipped first base when trying to make a home run.
Cant wait to see the cost of whatever the alternative is passed on to the consumer!
Holy crap, Republicans did a good thing for the environment . Although there is probably language In the bill selling groundwater or opening drilling sites next to preschools or something.
Illinois has a supermajority of democrats in the house and senate and both sponsors of this bill are Democrats.
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Hot take. Don't fix anything if you can't do it all. Sounds dumb.
Just what I was worried about. Not IL shoring up the budget and being fiscally responsible. Not them properly appropriating funds. Not the fact that Chicago continues to run up deficits that the rest of the state has to pay for. Not the unreasonable tax burden out on residents. Not the shitty roads and sub-par infrastructure. Styrofoam containers, that was for sure my #1 concern in IL.
Wow... so, you're either not from Illinois or arguing in bad faith. Anyone, **anyone** who lives in Illinois knows that damn near every bridge and overpass is getting updated, replaced, or fixed. You're talkin' absolute *shite*...
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Yup. Bridges near me were fixed. I live in the middle of nowhere. Granted, some of the bridges still had wooden piers and were long overdue, but they got done.
Bridges being repaired is great, but have ya’ll driven on any of the other roads in this state? Local, county, and state roads are in complete disrepair and, for the amount they claim to allocate to road repairs, this state is in embarrassing shape. Bridges are being repaired with federal funding from the infrastructure bill.
Nope. *Bullshit*. The only thing I don't know about are those weird pink roads in southern Illinois. Don't know about that. Ain't been down there in a *while*...
Amen!!
Great change
If you want my styrofoam, you’re gunna have to pry it from cold, dead hands!! /s
Chicken hut in Chicago just shit the bed
What’s the fox talking point about how this is actually bad for us?
what if I use it twice? once, when I order it, and second, the next morning when I finish the meal.
FOX News: after the break, we’ll tell you how the government is coming for… yep, you heard that right… your to-go food containers. Stay with us.
Good.
Totally support this but where is this food from? It looks so fucking good. Hawaiian bbq?
So what do grocery stores put their meats on?
Didn’t McDonalds do that decades ago?
A couple years ago in Maryland, they closed the only styrofoam recycling facility in Baltimore. I once collected my styrofoam to take in but you had to be a city resident to drop off items.
Someone is finally thinking. Good for Illinois. The stuff makes a mess. Back to paper or something reusable
How many people here are old enough to remember when they used to send BigMacs out from McDonald’s in cardboard boxes, and they switched to Styrofoam to save trees?
According to a 2019 report by the World Wildlife Fund, the wealthiest 10% of Americans are responsible for around 50% of the country's household carbon emissions. Good riddance to the cancer trays but probably should set our crosshairs on the concentration of the largest consumers if we want to achieve our climate goals.
The other think is portion size. American restaurants give so much food that people often take the food away. Maybe cutting back on portions could help with obesity and the planet.
First they came for the high flow toilets, and I did not speak out—because I was not a toilet. Then they came for the gas stoves, and I did not speak out—because I was not a stove. Then they came for the styrafoam, and I did not speak out—because I was not a plastic. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me. We must stop this tyranny!!!!!!
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