At 22:09 28-6-01 -0700, Doug Pensinger wrote:
>Have you ever noticed someone getting napkins in a fast food restaurant? Do
>they grab the one or two that is probably all they need? I'll bet that three
>of four grab at least five napkins - more than twice what they'll use, the
>rest being deposited directly into the trash. And going through the drive
>through is worse! They are liable to give me 6-10 napkins for a single
>order! Trivial you say? Insignificant? Do the math. If 10 million people a
>day eat fast food and take an average of 2 extra napkins each that's over 7
>billion napkins clogging up our landfills each year. That's like a stack of
>napkins over 2000 km tall (using a thickness of .3 mm.)
And that's just for the US. This taking-too-many-napkins happens here too,
and probably in the rest of the McDonald's-ized world as well.
When you go through the drive-through, do you Americans at least dump your
waste in the trashcan, or does it go out of the car window, which is what
happens here a lot?
(The Dutch government has started a campaign to make people aware of this:
all over the place there are now signs that point out that every year the
Dutch dump 100,000 tons (!) of waste by the side of the road.)
I really don't understand why people feel the need to dump their waste on
the road. It's such a small effort to keep it with you till you get home,
and then throw in the trashcan. What's that you say? You don't want that
stuff lying around in your car? Well, do like other smart people do, and
keep a bag in your car to put your waste in. When the bag is full, dump it
in the nearest trashcan and get an other bag. (Or empty the bag in the
trashcan, and put the bag back in the car.)
>How about bags? We are obsessed with
>them. We buy a pencil, we need a bag to put it in and carry it home.
>Wouldn't want it to get dusty. Hell if we buy a bag, we consider it a God
>given right to be supplied with another bag to tote it around in. 8^)
You still get bags whether you ask for it or not? That used to happen here
in The Netherlands as well, but that practice was pretty much abolished in
the early nineties. Ocassionally you'll still get a bag without asking for
it, but in most stores you are asked if you want one. Most of those bags
are made of plastic, BTW -- the only exception I know of are bookstores,
that often give you a paper bag (unless the paper bag can't support the
weight of the books you bought, in which case you'll get a plastic bag).
Supermarkets don't give you bags at all anymore -- but if you want one, you
can buy it from them (usually costs 25 or 35 cents, just enough to
encourage people to bring their own bags). Supermarkets also place their
empty cardboard boxes behind the checkout counter, so you can use those
(free of charge!) to put your groceries in.
Jeroen
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