camcas
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,112
Jun 26, 2014 3:41:19 GMT
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Post by camcas on May 16, 2022 11:32:04 GMT
I love watching meal preps ,grocery hauls and “ day in my life “type vlogs I have noticed that a lot of them use disposable paper plates o plastic cutlery and toss them after a regular meal. I also see the purchase of paper cups often in grocery hauls I am wondering if this is a common thing in USA? I am an Aussie and I can honestly say the only time I would use paper plates is for a kids party or maybe an outside BBQ if I had a lot of guests. My kids are grown so I can’t remember the last time. I can see these bloggers have a dishwasher Surely the cost of dishwasher tabs and electricity is cheaper than the disposable products. I am not trying to be snarky just genuinely wondering Cultural differences fascinate me
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Post by iamkristinl16 on May 16, 2022 11:35:33 GMT
I notice that sometimes as well. It seems like such a waste. We only use paper plates when we have people over for a party
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Post by lisae on May 16, 2022 11:38:10 GMT
I am an Aussie and I can honestly say the only time I would use paper plates is for a kids party or maybe an outside BBQ if I had a lot of guests. Paper plates are a pet peeve of mine. I'm an American and this is me. I don't even keep paper plates in the house. I put some effort into my cooking and I'm going to eat off of regular plates with silverware. I have one relative who uses paper plates for all the meals she fixes. There are small grandchildren around now but why do the adults have to eat off of paper plates? When I was a child, we ate off regular plates also. I don't ever remember breaking one.
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Post by monklady123 on May 16, 2022 11:38:52 GMT
I am always surprised at how often people post their food photos, in FB groups such as the Instant Pot group, or WW, etc., and the food is on paper plates. The only time we ever use them here is on Christmas morning for our cinnamon rolls (and the paper plates are Christmas themed, lol), or a few times when we've had some plumbing issue with our kitchen sink and I didn't want to have to wash dishes. Even for picnics we usually take a melamine set I have for that purpose, because they're sturdier than paper plates and I feel that using paper all the time is wasteful.
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Post by mom on May 16, 2022 11:41:39 GMT
We never use them...maybe once a year (if that?) and for sure never use plastic utensils.
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QueenoftheSloths
Drama Llama
Member Since January 2004, 2,698 forum posts PeaNut Number: 122614 PeaBoard Title: StuckOnPeas
Posts: 5,955
Jun 26, 2014 0:29:24 GMT
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Post by QueenoftheSloths on May 16, 2022 11:44:30 GMT
Never, and I don't remember using them as a kid either.
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Post by sabrinae on May 16, 2022 11:48:30 GMT
We don’t use them on any sort of regular basis - I’ll occasionally use them for parties depending on how many people are here. I use them so rarely that I think the last time I bough them was 5 years ago and I still have some left. But, I don’t think it is that unusual. My in laws all regularly use them and I’m aware of at least a couple of other families that do. And as monk lady mentioned many of the people on Facebook cooking groups seem to use them regularly - almost all their pictures are on paper plates
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Post by Restless Spirit on May 16, 2022 11:50:37 GMT
Paper plates? Almost never. I bought a set of paper plates from Costco at Christmas time to take over to our daughter’s house because she doesn’t have enough dessert plates. They will be around for years to come because we have a small family.
Plastic utensils? I never buy them, but occasionally get them with carry out food. The knives get recycled. Some of the spoons we use to stir our coffee in the morning until the finish wears off, then they are recycled. The rest of the spoons and forks are kept for feeding my elderly mini dachshund. She is 16-1/2 years old and mostly eats wet dog food. I use the plastic utensils to scoop out her food from the container. Sometimes I have to “hand feed” her, so I use the plastic spoons and she will eat off of the spoon. Everything get recycled eventually.
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camcas
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,112
Jun 26, 2014 3:41:19 GMT
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Post by camcas on May 16, 2022 11:52:28 GMT
Just as I thought- it’s a vlogger thing and not a regular thing
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Post by mikklynn on May 16, 2022 11:54:20 GMT
I almost never use them. I'd have to have a really big gathering to do so.
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iluvpink
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,370
Location: Michigan
Jul 13, 2014 12:40:31 GMT
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Post by iluvpink on May 16, 2022 11:59:35 GMT
Here we use them for summer outside meals like cookouts etc, though even then we often use real stuff because we usually have small groups, no young children who might break/lose things etc.
If we use a VRBO for vacation we may or may not use them, we used to use them more often, but less so now, we tried to get away from it.
I do keep plastic utensils in my desk drawer at work in case I forget to pack utensils.
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Deleted
Posts: 0
Oct 7, 2024 5:26:34 GMT
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Post by Deleted on May 16, 2022 12:02:05 GMT
Never, they're not something I'd even contemplate buying.
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Post by littlemama on May 16, 2022 12:03:33 GMT
We use them for meals such as hamburgers, hot dogs, tacos, sloppy joes, etc as well as for lunches on the rare occasion we are home for lunch. Disposable cutlery we dont typically use at home other than a plastic knife to cut brownies.
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Post by CardBoxer on May 16, 2022 12:04:02 GMT
Never. Other than a couple times we’ve provided coffee or hot chocolate in paper “hot cups” to contractors since they were mostly outdoors and it was cold out. They were paper, not styrofoam, which is horrible stuff.
Some restaurants have switched to recyclable containers for food, but a lot still use styrofoam, which will never disintegrate. And restaurants including plastic silverware even when told it’s not needed? Ugh. I know you were asking about our daily use though.
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Post by MZF on May 16, 2022 12:20:00 GMT
Paper plates-rarely,maybe once or twice a year. I much prefer to eat off dinnerware. Cups-almost never. I have a pack of paper cups I got back in 2005 (from a friend that got a bunch for free). I gave most away, but kept a stack 'just in case'. And I haven't bought plastic utensils since my youngest graduated HS--he just turned 31, and I still have a bunch left, another 'just in case'.
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Post by jeremysgirl on May 16, 2022 12:20:54 GMT
I only use them if I am having a BBQ outdoors for paper plates and for plastic silverware, I have to have more people coming to my BBQ than I have silverware for. Otherwise, I have 18 place settings of Fiestaware and I'm going to use them, damnit! LOL! I don't even use paper napkins. I love a cloth napkin. I also insist on eating at the dining room table. Jeremy often eats on the couch in front of the TV so I often eat alone at the table. And I'm very particular about the pairing of my glass of wine with my meal too. I just feel if I'm spending an hour to cook a meal, I sure as hell am going to make the eating of said meal an experience.
I am wondering if some of this is a generational thing. My parents are both heavy users of paper plates and plastic silverware. I've noticed my MIL also using paper plates like 50% of the time we eat over there. And I've only had a few meals at FILs house, but again, served on paper plates. I grew up in a house where paper plates were the norm.
ETA: I cannot imagine being on a cooking/food website and presenting my food on a paper plate. LOL!
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amom23
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,409
Jun 27, 2014 12:39:18 GMT
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Post by amom23 on May 16, 2022 12:53:43 GMT
We use them for big family holidays and events like neighborhood barbeques and graduation parties.
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Post by bbkeef on May 16, 2022 13:04:42 GMT
Only for a large party. And that's pretty rare these days. I know several families that use paper plates all the time. It's a pet peeve of mine since my cousin is nearly a gourmet cook but will post his meals on a paper plate. There are only two of us in this household, but I will run the dishwasher once a week to ensure that we use real dishes. I was brought up to be environmentally conscious, so anything that isn't reusable or recyclable is just not for me.
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Deleted
Posts: 0
Oct 7, 2024 5:26:34 GMT
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Post by Deleted on May 16, 2022 13:06:48 GMT
I am an Aussie and I can honestly say the only time I would use paper plates is for a kids party or maybe an outside BBQ if I had a lot of guests. I'm a Brit and do the same. I find it awfully environmentally damaging to use most disposable things if I can avoid doing so in any way, not just plates etc. I do use non breakable ( I suppose they are plastic of some sort) plates and wine glasses/beer glasses for family BBQ's ( for safety reason, I don't want broken china/glass all over the garden) but they are washable and re-usable and go in the dishwasher. I never use disposable cutlery, can't stand eating food with plastic knives and forks. I haven't bought paper plates since DD's were little and used them for their parties.
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lesley
Drama Llama
My best friend Turriff, desperately missed.
Posts: 7,295
Location: Scotland, Scotland, Scotland
Jul 6, 2014 21:50:44 GMT
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Post by lesley on May 16, 2022 13:07:14 GMT
I bought some disposable plates a couple of weeks ago, but only because I was staying in a hotel with a friend. We planned to get dinner delivered, and when we did that two weeks prior, we had to eat from the takeaway containers. Very messy, and we ended up dropping bits of food all over the bed. 🤦🏼♀️ So the second trip, we made sure we were more prepared. We did make sure to bring real crystal wine glasses both trips! 😉
But that is the first time I’ve used them in years, and I made sure to buy paper rather than plastic.
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Post by CardBoxer on May 16, 2022 13:13:46 GMT
I only use them if I am having a BBQ outdoors for paper plates and for plastic silverware, I have to have more people coming to my BBQ than I have silverware for. Otherwise, I have 18 place settings of Fiestaware and I'm going to use them, damnit! LOL! I don't even use paper napkins. I love a cloth napkin. I also insist on eating at the dining room table. Jeremy often eats on the couch in front of the TV so I often eat alone at the table. And I'm very particular about the pairing of my glass of wine with my meal too. I just feel if I'm spending an hour to cook a meal, I sure as hell am going to make the eating of said meal an experience. I am wondering if some of this is a generational thing. My parents are both heavy users of paper plates and plastic silverware. I've noticed my MIL also using paper plates like 50% of the time we eat over there. And I've only had a few meals at FILs house, but again, served on paper plates. I grew up in a house where paper plates were the norm. ETA: I cannot imagine being on a cooking/food website and presenting my food on a paper plate. LOL! I’d guess it’s more a personal decision rather than generational? We only used paper plates for picnics when I was growing up, and even then sometimes used melamine. Seems like it was the same for other families we were friends with. I ate at friends’ houses and vice versa fairly often when a kid. Funny, I was just thinking about the metal tv trays we sometimes ate on in our rec rooms, and looked for them on ebay.
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Post by ameslou on May 16, 2022 13:15:49 GMT
We used them when we had a brand new baby .. we were so overwhelmed and looking for ways to simplify any tasks not related to keeping our little one alive. (Today is said little one’s last day of high school 😭)
Otherwise, we only use them when we’re hosting a big gathering.
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Post by roxley on May 16, 2022 13:18:39 GMT
I don’t know anyone who uses them except for parties. I don’t think it is an American thing unless it is more the younger generation. I do remember everyone being upset that the Duggars (show with 19 kids) always used paper plates and cups on their show!
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Post by maryland on May 16, 2022 13:20:09 GMT
We have used them when the kids are home for break. It gets to be too much for me to keep up with all the dishes, so I tell them they either help or use plastic utensils and paper plates. I also decluttered so much so we only have enough plates, utelsils, cups, etc. for 6 people (and we have 5 in our family).
I notice that when we are going through a hard time as we are right now, we just do what we need to do to get through the day and sometimes it means we have to use convenience items.
Other than the two examples above, we hardly ever use plastic/paper utensils.
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Post by jeremysgirl on May 16, 2022 13:21:20 GMT
I’d guess it’s more a personal decision rather than generational? Could totally be. Surrounding me, it's the older generations that use them. My parents and my ILs don't recycle either. So maybe it's just less likely to happen for people who are environmentally conscious and that can apply to anyone really, no matter their age.
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Post by Flowergirl on May 16, 2022 13:21:30 GMT
We used plasticware for the kids graduation parties and still use the leftovers from that for roadtrips or picnics away from home. The last party was 2017 and we still have a ton left.
I buy one package of the thin paper plates about once a year. We use them in the microwave on occasion because our plates get too hot in the microwave or to contain splatters. DH was a big paper plate consumer at one point but he broke out of the habit of grabbing them for lunch or food prep.
If we entertain, indoors or out, we just use our regular plates and silverware.
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Post by kitkath on May 16, 2022 13:23:35 GMT
We use small paper plates when we have snacks on our lake and once a year for the 4th of a July holiday. Never use plastic silverware. For the 4th of July we have 20-26 people here for several days. We used to use our Fiestaware but one of my friends suggested using sturdy paper plates for the meals. I kind of balked at the idea at first but it saves so much time that I did give in and we use them for that holiday only. We make really good food and I hate serving on paper plates.
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oh yvonne
Prolific Pea
Posts: 8,062
Jun 26, 2014 0:45:23 GMT
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Post by oh yvonne on May 16, 2022 13:23:58 GMT
I'm in between. I buy the big packs of super cheap thin white paper plates. I use them for simple things like a quesadilla, or a sandwich. Small dessert.
I'm in So Calif and we are in a serious drought. The less dishes I use the less frequently I need to run the dishwasher. We try and reuse the same glasses to drink water out of as much as possible.
We don't use plastic cups or utensils, but those thin little paper plates do cut down a lot on dirty dishes. They are also great as a tool when cooking, to set cooked bacon on, to cover a plate being reheated in the microwave, as a base for grating cheese on.
They are quite handy.
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Post by candygurl on May 16, 2022 13:27:49 GMT
For almost every meal. We get the cheap ones for breakfast and lunch and the thicker ones for dinner. It’s just easier for us as a big family. I do try and use the small glass plates or plastic plates for just me. Growing up, we used glass plates for dinner and I think paper plates every other meal. It is something we can work on. Sometimes filling up the dishwasher before dinner is not helpful as I would have to do two loads per day.
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Post by epeanymous on May 16, 2022 13:32:06 GMT
Only for kid parties, and even then usually only if there are more than a handful of kids (we have plenty of plates but I’d rather not worry about unsupervised kids breaking them). We actually don’t have a huge amount of cutlery, so anything more than 12 people does mean plastic cutlery, but even then, most things we have with crowds are either bagels or pizza. What it has meant is that we have a graveyard of plastic knives, because the plastic ware multipack my husband always gets has plastic knives that literally no one ever uses.
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