D.C. Area Nesties
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Tell me I'm not crazy...
See this post on Money Matters.
Tell me I'm not the only one who thinks it's gross to reuse plastic silverware.
I can't believe almost 75% of people don't think it's gross to reuse plastic silverware at a party! eww! I don't know why, but for some reason I find it shocking. LOL.
Re: Tell me I'm not crazy...
We make the rockin' world go 'round.
I have those plastic wine glasses that come in two pieces and you put together. I'd never ever reused those but I bet those ladies would :P
cant they just recycle and buy new ?
That's what I'm wondering.
TTC #2: BFP 12/17/11, m/c 1/7/12 and D&C 1/12/12
baby blog/cooking blog
Yeah, but these plates are meant to be reused! it's not like she's rewashing the solo plates.
Even for parties? It wouldn't gross you out just a little?
I wash and re-use plastic forks and spoons at work. Yes, I could bring in real silverware from home but I don't want to and I think it's wasteful to throw away plastic so I use and re-use. I don't think it's crazy, I think it's environmentally-friendly. I wouldn't re-use someone else's plastic ware but I have no problems re-using my own.
This is where I scratch my head, too. We have enough real plates (cheap IKEA) and real silverware for about 20 people. The real plates were $.50 each. The real silverware is cheap, from a restaurant supply place - for less than $10, you can get 12 sets of silverware (a basic knife, fork, and spoon). Admittedly, our silverware has dwindled (I lent some out, lost some, etc...) and a few of the plates are chipped... but, still - they've lasted at least 5 years.
Anything over 20 people, we buy disposable.... and actually throw it away. You couldn't even make the argument that it takes too much storage space, because you still have to store the plastic ones!
My Food Blog
Oh, it happed in my family, too... I still think it's ick.
(I do reuse my own for lunches/snacks at work sometimes...)
I don't see why it's gross...it's not like plastic absorbs cooties that don't wash off ;-) But I agree with pp that it completely defeats the purpose of disposable utensils, so it's just dumb to me.
And it would have to depend on how well I knew the person and their cleaning habits before I could say if it grossed me out at a party. If it's a person that I trusted to clean things thoroughly, then I'd be okay. But since you can't put plastic utensils in the dishwasher, if it it's someone that I thought my be sneaky and just rinse things off and tell me it's been washed, I'd be eating with my fingers :-)
(btw, this reminds me that at Christmas, MIL was all excited about these plastic plates she got at Costco and wanted to use for Christmas dinner. They were disposable plastic plates that are supposed to look like china...but they totally look like plastic plates. And she was all "oh, it will make clean up SO much easier!"...for all SIX adults at dinner. so cray-cray.)
My old chorus used to do these day long rehearsals on a weekend and we'd have a potluck lunch. Like 100-120 people, and we'd use the same plastic silverware every time. Eat, wash, pack in a box for next time. I have no idea how old that shiit actually was, and glad I never stopped to think about it.
Probably along the same lines, my parents wash ziploc bags to reuse them.
I know, man. This is totally something grandmas do.
For a party, this would weird me out. I can't imagine it's easy to properly wash and dry dozens of pieces of plasticware. Especially because those things aren't meant to go in the dishwasher and will probably break down over time. And also? Is my company not worth a 5 cent fork to you? Really?
Even my depression-era, throw nothing out mother does not do this. She does it for herself, but not from other people. I reuse my plastic wear at work. To me, that is not a biggie, but I would never wash and reuse someone elses.
Actually, lately the idea of going to a restaurant is grossing me out these days. Don't even get me started on hotels.
My mom washes and re-uses plastic cutlery - usually when the crowd is so big she doesn't have enough matching "real" stuff. I've never done it, but it doesn't gross me out.
I do get irritated when we go to her house and she sends leftovers home with us (boo hoo, poor us, right?) in a ziplock that she's used about 100 times and washed out. For some reason that is my limit. I do not reuse ziplocks unless it's a dry good - like I put graham crackers for the kids into a freezer-weight ziplock, and when we run out, we buy a new box, and use the same ziplock. But when they look all dented and worn out - blech.
I don't understand HOW people reuse plastic-ware from parties. If I'm at a party and someone has plastic forks, I assume they are disposable and throw them in the trash when I'm finished eating. Does the host make an announcement that they shouldn't be thrown away? Do they sift through the trash for them? I don't get it.
there's a big difference between personal use and party use. If its your own plastic fork/spoon at your desk and you re-use it, great. But if you're washing plastic silverware at parties to reuse at the next party, I say a big, fat EW. Buy new. that's the point of plastic silverware.
and to the pp who talked about plates -- I have plastic plates at my house, too --that's different (to me) than a meant-to-be-disposable plate, which I thought was the point of the original thread.
If we are having a large party (more than 15-20), we use disposable plates and silverware bc we don't have that much "real" stuff. (glasses, we have so many of we can serve the county and not have to wash for hte next person.) But yeah. like WNW said, it goes in the trash and I am not picking it out to wash it! It wasn't meant to go in a dishwasher and I wouldn't trust anyone -- even myself -- to get it clean enough to reuse.
I feel the need to take a shower now.
"What is a week-end?"
Same here. Plus she washes straws, saves styrofoam cups from chick-fil-A and the like, and lays paper towels out to dry to reuse...actually, if I only use a paper towel to dry my hands I do lay it on the counter to use again (but only for drying hands, not to put food on or something!)
The party re-use is not to my taste. Those plastic forks have those ridges on the back that are really hard to get clean (I reuse them at work for my lunch)
We really try hard to not use disposable for parties - between our sets of silverware from when we were single and our new set we have enough silverware for 50+ people. We have fewer plates, but we still try to minimize reusable. Even though it is more work post party, it makes me feel better about our consumption.
Artslvr, we reuse ziplocks the same way. Once it's been used for raw meat or something messy, they get chucked. Although we have significantly cut down on our ziplock use. We don't even go through a box in a year.
I am totally fine if it's for your own personal use.
I think it completely defeats the purpose of plasticware when done in groupish settings, I keep trying to break one of my coworker's from doing this with plasticware that client's use. For whatever reason, I do think it's kind of gross, even though I know it's being washed in the dishwasher. We buy them in bulk, we are a company that makes a lot of money, with very high paying clients. We do not need to reuse plastic knives and forks for clients...
I am with Chia on this post.
My Cooking Blog
Yeah...this among a million other reasons make me wonder how this woman still has a job (here or anywhere, honestly.)
As soon as I realized what she was doing, I would throw them out directly when I was emptying the dishwasher. I also told her boss, who is "fixing" it. It skeeves me out to no end, not going to lie. I always pull them out of a box if I am giving them to a client, because she only puts them in a zip lock bag...