At 12:09 AM 6/29/01, Doug 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!
I just ate some chili dogs*. Trust me: napkins were needed.
(*from one of the few places open late enough for me to stop at on the way
home from class.)
>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.
Of course, some of us leave the extras in the car for later emergencies,
like when the clerk forgets to put _any_ in the sack.
>That's like a stack of
>napkins over 2000 km tall (using a thickness of .3 mm.) And it's only the
>very tiny tip of a massive iceberg. 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^)
Especially when we buy one of those reusable mesh shopping bags, which is
already packaged in a heat-sealed plastic envelope . . .
>Have you
>seen that add for motor oil where they guy ends up making seven trips to the
>store because he keeps forgetting things? That isn't that much of an
>exaggeration from my experience. Now I expect that the U.S. Americans on this
>list are more conscientious than most, but I wouldn't brand ourselves as
>typical. In general we are very wastefull and for us to cut back a bit
>wouldn't hurt us a bit.
What a lot of people who would (and maybe already are) cut back on their
own resent is having someone else arbitrarily tell them what they do and
don't "need."
-- Ronn! :)
