A Wasteful America, Part 3

Circling back to this subject matter, which I seem to visit once every decade lol, as the two previous posts were published in 2008 and 2018. There’s always new waste in this country to be studied though, right?

I recently bought a sandwich to go, in the South Ferry Station, en route to a very part time job I picked up in Staten Island. While the sandwich was being prepared, I noticed a sign on the wall announcing NYC’s “Skip the Stuff” law which went into effect on July 31, 2023. This program is described online as such:

“NYC ‘Skip the Stuff’ law requires customers to request single-use plastics like napkins, condiment packets, and utensils for takeout and delivery orders, as these items are no longer automatically provided to reduce waste and landfill burden. This law went into effect on July 31, 2023, and businesses face escalating fines, starting at $50, for non-compliance after a year-long warning period ending June 30, 2024.”

As of now, that grace period ended over 15 months ago — and I can’t begin to tell you how many take out and delivery orders I receive which automatically include napkins and plastic utensils, and sometimes even condiments which I didn’t ask for and never use, such as those tiny salt and pepper envelopes. This alone is alarming in the face of what is now citywide law.

But then, the other night I had a craving for NYC Chinese food — if you know you know, right? Either way, as the employee was packing up my order, I literally said to him, “I don’t need anything else — just the food — no napkins or utensils.” So of course I was surprised when I got home, opened the bag, and found, well, napkins and utensils.

Now, I do always save the napkins from every order — since most restaurants typically just toss an entire handful in your bag willy-nilly, but I have literally no need for plastic utensils or additional condiments. So, where does this stuff go? Straight into the trash.

These things are literally produced by a company for profit, then placed in takeout bags all over the country with goods being sold for profit, and then immediately deposited into trash cans, to make their way to landfills or wherever the hell we send our mountainous tons of trash these days. (Perhaps this is why we’re so desperate to get to Mars, because we need to start figuring out a substitute plan for our compounding global refuse problem?)

So, add this concern to my previous two posts on wasteful American issues. And can somebody please explain to me how this is still even a thing? Numerous attempts have been made to ameliorate some of these environmental stressors, but none of them have been able to follow through. For instance, when you now order something on GrubHub or Seamless, you are supposed to check a box if you want all this pre-garbage garbage. And I have not ONCE checked this box, as I have everything I need in my apartment. And yet I get bombarded with this superfluous stuff that goes straight into the bin.

These laws should be implemented -- and adequately enforced! -- nationwide. You can have it, but you just have to ask for it. The same law should apply to water when you sit down in a restaurant as well. Folks, we’re going to be fighting wars over water soon, so let’s stop wasting it every chance we get. But I guess, ultimately, it’s one thing to pass a law and another to actually enforce it. Just look at our current administration for examples.

And I’m sure anyone from the red hat cult reading this would swiftly admonish this entire post, claiming I’m a snowflake libtard — and then demanding that THEY HAVE THE RIGHT TO HAVE A HAND IN THE DESTRUCTION OF THE ENVIRONMENT AND YOU CAN’T TELL ME WHAT TO DO, YOU DEMONIC SATANIC LEFTIST BECAUSE YEEHAW MY FREEDOM.

So even the right to simply allow stuff to be created so it can basically immediately go into the garbage and be of no actual use to anyone is now a political issue as well.

Okay, got it chief.

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