Why do Americans use paper plates?

[fifteenohfour]

Any Americans here? or people who have been there enough to know why?

I love looking at the thanksgiving hashtag on instagram, the food they have is always immense and looks amazing to me. Especially their mac and cheese and pumpkin pie.

What I don't get is that nearly 90% of these videos they are all eating off paper plates? In the UK I eat off paper plates at a picnic or at a venue birthday like when you hire a hall out and have a party. None of my friends or family throughout my whole life have ever eaten off paper plates at home and if you go deeper into American food posts on instagram it's actually an everyday thing for them?? They eat off paper plates for every meal it blows my mind.

I grew up on a council estate and myself and my friends/family we are all working class so it's not like I have a warped sense of food and drink serving. i just never see it over here?

It's bugging me! Do they have amazing recycling facilities that allow them to use so much single use items? One family said they went through 40 paper plates EVERY DAY!!! Because of their 6 kids having one for every single snack they ate.

DFOD - I have been at least six times and can vividly recall a whirly thing at the end of the checkout where the operator scans the goods sticks them in a carrier bag and then moves it round and sticks the next couple of things in the next carrier. When the whirly gets round to you, you lift them off the hooks and put them in your cart.

Any European would be horrified by the huge amount of waste in the US.

Yes. There is another one going about how we Americans, all 330 million of us, don't pronounce our t's correctly.

This from folks whose version of spoken English invented the glottal stop.

As few as every three? Feels like more.

Small changes add up. 10 years ago when I went to a conference there was a plastic bottle of Spring water at every seat. Now there is a large reusable swing top glass bottle of filtered water between every two seats and a glass for each person. Saves a lot of plastic.

@Cantstandbullshit

Yes, and 8 have banned them.

Honestly, this thread is full of some of the most reductive bullshit I've read in a very long time. It actually saddens me how small, in the worst sense of the word, Britain seems to be becoming.

What a stupid dumb statement.

Gosh six times.

You are the expert. No one is denying that plastic bags are available (as they are in the UK). They're denying that two items per bag is normal and that people in America don't know what cloth bags are.

And please don't lump the UK in with Europe as you're shockingly behind when it comes to the environment.

Not true. The Jewish community use paper plates

Again you’re lying, they do not pt just two thin gas in each bag they will fill it up, and many states including Illinois where I live charge 7c or so for bags so many people bring their own reusable bags. Infact some stores will give you credit back when you bring your own bag, it’s a tiny amount but still encouraging if it avoids paying.

Infact Jewel Osco the local grocery store I use have started removing the bags from the self serve stations to avoid people just saying 0 bags and then taking bags so you have to ask the attendant for the bags now.

I seriously detest this need to bash Americans that you have going on here, every few days it’s the same thing and you all start claiming and asserting based on stereotypes. That’s one way to get a busy post on MN I guess.

I've never known that in any Jewish homes I've been to. Is that Orthodox Judaism possibly to avoid mixing foods? It certainly wouldn't be common in America even so as that's a very small community.

And to avoid the need for two dishwashers and two sets of china.

@CheapWine Some of us live in the US though and I can 100% confirm that those whirly bag things don’t exist where I live and nearly everyone brings their own bags nowadays-or pays for a paper one, no plastic bags available any more, they were legally banned last year.

Each state has its own laws though, so what you experienced during your visits could be quite different to my area.

But she has been there at least six times and such is an expert.

Oh, an anti-American thread. How incredibly tedious.

(I've lived in the US for close on 20 years. Have never noticed people eating on paper plates other than at an outdoor event. And for the PP - most grocery stores only have paper bags, in my experience.)

I mean, as I've said, I Iive in NYC half my office, most of my friends, my husband and his entire family are Jewish, none of them routinely use paper plates. Also none of them have two dishwashers or two sets of china. Or at least they don't have the china for religious purposes - Step-MIL has about 6 because she's a total packrat.

Nice bit of light anti-Semitism you've got going on there....🙄

Orthodox jews do have to keep dishes and cutlery for meat and dairy separate.
My husband is Jewish though not orthodox, and we have many friends who are. I am not anti Semitic, just have more familiarity with the rules of kashrut Than you, it seems.

You didn't say Orthodox Jews, you said "The Jewish community" that's lumping everyone together from the most liberal Reform families to the Hasidim together like they're one homogenous mass.

I think separate refrigerators in some cases too? But that's very specifically orthodox Jews. I've never encountered it any Jewish household I've ever been in.

That was @tonystarksrighthand

@fyn

You know you can reuse plastic bags if you want.

Plastic bags reused even once are actually more environmentally friendly than cloth bags. Not to mention no other bag does the job of a plastic one. It's strong, waterproof, and cheap enough to tie a dirty nappy in and chuck away.

I’m on a few Facebook groups that are international but predominantly American and I’m often struck by the cultural differences around these things.

People post their school lunch routines or after school snack drawers and it’s all cartons and mini plastic packages. None of that is allowed in my dc’s schools - they have water to drink in reusable bottles and are encouraged to avoid cling film and tin foil. One school has done away with bins.

This time of year there are lots of discussions about teachers appreciation gifts, whole class favours or treats and at Halloween lots of people shared ideas for plastic tat alternatives to candy.

It is striking how well received these posts are, when you would get flamed on MN.

But irl I only have to push my trolley round the supermarket to see that we have a long way to go too. I was rolling my eyes in Primark recently at their faux natural plastic homeware collection.Greenwashing sells well and shows that many people don’t think too deeply about these issues. I’ve seen so many rolls of brown wrapping paper, sealed in plastic, this year. Trendy but thoughtless.

I'd say Primark and fast fashion in general is far worse in the UK than in the states. I was a bit shocked by that myself. Or people paving over their gardens entirely, or worse covering them in plastic green grass.

Every country has it's "thing" and if this were another country I'd find it less hypocritical but the UK is only second to America in plastic usage.

Wait, you've been to Walmart 6 times?! That cancels out the once a week for 20ish years I've gone. Yes, the bag carousel looks like that. No, they are not confused by reusable bags.