Plastic Containers

Despite the recent trendiness of inconvenient truths and calls to ban the plastic bag, I still sometimes find my attempts at greenness thwarted.

I like the food at little cafeteria down the block from where I work. I kept my plastic containers from the last time I got take-out there, and brought them with me today. But when I presented them at the counter, the young woman working there was unaccommodating. First she tried to recycle them. Then when I insisted that I wanted to reuse them, she just gave them back to me (so that I could reuse them elsewhere?). Finally I explained that I wanted her to put my food in them, then and there. By that time she wasn't so friendly and I was feeling foolish.

I don't feel mad at her, as working customer service is a drag (at least I always found it to be) and I was making her job more complicated. Plus, as my sister pointed out, restaurants probably have a health code to follow that doesn't allow the reuse of disposable containers.

Everyone has jumped on the plastic bag bandwagon, but I wager that much more plastic and paper is tossed into the dump everyday because of food packaging from take-out and fast food restaurants than from Safeway bags. Styrofoam (again, according to my sister) isn't even recyclable in the city of Calgary. But try to show up with your own Tupperware and you'll get weird looks and little cooperation.

When I lived in Korea, I learned sufficient survival Korean to order food delivered to my apartment. A young man would ride up on his motorcycle, bring the food to my door and collect the money. When I was done eating, I'd put my reusable plastic plates and bowls out in the hallway. A while later, they'd be gone, picked up by the same delivery man. Now, I assume this was done to save money, not the environment, as two motorcycle trips were required, and the food always came in plastic bags. Even so, it demonstrates another possibility.

In Taiwan, according to my friend who taught there, most Taiwanese carry a set of personal collapsible chopsticks around with them in a little pouch. I think this is done because the cleanliness of restaurant chopsticks is always suspect (they're not wrapped in paper like they are here). Still, I've never met anyone who carries her own fork and knife in her handbag.

Is there a way we could make reusable plates, bowls and utensils work for take-out in Canada?