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Sunday, October 25, 2009

Saving the world, one Jello shot at a time

Posted on Sunday, October 25

As much as I try to be a responsible, earth-loving person, I know I am not perfect - such as when I use "disposable" plasticware due to the convenience. However, I try to make this a rare ocassion because plastic is not really disposable at all and it takes hundreds of years to break apart (and only into smaller and smaller pieces). With that fact in mind, I hate that so many bars (dare I say all of them) use a variety of plastic cups as if there were no environmental harm. Not only are the cups being used for beers, mixed drinks and shots, they are used for purely wasteful reasons (like helping shake a drink for 3 seconds or covering a drink at the bar while someone runs to the bathroom) and then the plastic cups get tossed in the trash. The 2 seconds it took for the bartender to decide to use a plastic cup has now resulted in hundreds of years of waste in the local landfill. This practice needs to stop now. If the city won't mandate the use of reusable dishware, then bars/restaurants must make the choice themselves. At the very least, if you are a bartender, think twice (no, thrice) before reaching for that plastic cup. Reducing the use of plastic across the board is a great thing to do, but starting with cups seems like a simple place to start. While using a plastic cup may seem like a quick, easy thing to do now, it has a lot of long-term negative impacts, so please be a little more selfless and do your part to save the planet.

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Some plastic cups are recyclable. Instead of simply throwing away the plastic cups, they could be placed in a separate bin and then recycled later. My biggest complaint is that recyclying is not mandatory here in Charleston. So, not only are bars throwing out all of these plastic cups, but many of them don't even recycle the glass beer and liquor bottles that they throw out every night.

Posted by fckysoldier on October 26, 2009 at 10:28 AM | Report this comment

A big reason bars tend to use plastic cups is because having a few dropped drinks throughout the night is pretty much a given, and they don't want to be held liable for someone slicing up their foot on broken glass.

That being said, it is very unfortunate that most F&B establishments seem unwilling to put any effort at all into a recycling program.

Posted by tiger_kyd on October 27, 2009 at 9:16 AM | Report this comment

Does anyone have full info on what the mandated laws are in Chas for recycling for businesses? Most of the "trash" from bars and restaurants HAS to be recyclable bottles, cans,etc. Dont they do something like charge based on amount of trash? They should be charged on weight, that way places might think twice before trashing so many (recyclable) cans and bottles, as well as cutting back on plastic cups and plates that get tossed.

Posted by yournamehere on October 27, 2009 at 1:31 PM | Report this comment

Although it doesn't cover the laws explicitly, we ran an article last year that addresses some of the issues involved.
The Waste of Getting Wasted

Posted by Webmaster on October 27, 2009 at 1:37 PM | Report this comment

I feel that the EPA does a good job of making sure landfills are safe, so it really doesn't matter to me how long a plastic cup will stay in a landfill. It's completely irrelevant though because, in Charleston County, 90% of our trash is incerated.

The reason we shouldn't be wasting plastic (and I can't believe more people don't bring this up) is that PLASTIC IS MADE FROM OIL. Forget about environmental impact and remember the summer of '08 when we were all trying to reduce our oil consumption. The more we use, the higher the price, and eventually it's going to run out.

Posted by cg11 on October 28, 2009 at 1:31 PM | Report this comment

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