Monday, May 24, 2010

I'll Have A Turkey and Paper, Hold The Plastic


We tend to order out a lot at my work. A favorite is a luncheonette that makes yummy sandwiches and salads.

One day while placing our lunch order online, a bright red paragraph came up on screen letting us know that to help the environment, the take-out deli would no longer provide plastic utensils, condiments or napkins.

I was so excited! Finally! We have an entire drawer full of leftover plastic utensils and a basket as big as a pond overflowing with condiment packets.

We placed our order and waited for our new eco-friendly lunch to arrive.

The delivery man arrived with a big plastic bag. Inside the plastic bag was a paper bag. Inside the paper bag were our sandwiches...wrapped in three layers of paper surrounded by an elastic band. Tucked neatly inside the elastic band was another slip of paper which listed the ingredients of our sandwiches.

To top it all off was a stack of napkins. At least there were no utensils.

As I pulled out the last sandwich out of the bag, there was a final slip of paper. A shiny, bright note announcing that to help the environment, they would no longer be providing utensils, napkins and condiments.

Hmmm. Is it really a green initiative if it includes extra paper to repeat the initiative that you just announced on-line?

And does your sandwich really need the tissue-like piece? What is that for? It always gets wet and sticks to the sandwich, anyway.

And the piece that they wrap around the sandwich and cut through. Do they really need that to hold the sandwich together?

It's enough to make you want to prepare your own lunch. Which I should be doing anyway.

1 comment: