For Here or To Go?

Americans live incredibly fast paced lives. Every service industry is geared towards speed and efficiency; one can have their car serviced, washed and detailed in under an hour, pictures can be developed in record time and even the DMV guarantees certain services be completed in short amounts of time. As a consequence of our living-on-the-go, Americans eat away from home A LOT, and I find this to be another alarming problem for our environment. According to Bruce Horovitz of USA Today, the average restaurant produces 100,000 pounds of garbage per location per year with most of it from bulky packaging and excess food. Having worked at a restaurant for over a year, I've seen this waste first hand. We all have been to restaurants like Applebee's or Ruby Tuesday's and ordered just a basic item like a chicken sandwich or a pasta dish. The portion sizes at places like this are incredible. Sandwiches are bigger than my face while a whole tub pasta comes with a "side salad" which is really big enough for a family of four. I know very few people who can ever finish a meal this large, and the excess food is either thrown away by the restaurant or taken home in a bulky Styrofoam container, left in the fridge for a week and then thrown away. What a waste! Fast food restaurants are just as bad, though. Thankfully the portions have gone down somewhat, but all food comes in disposable packaging and the workers seem to think each person needs fifteen napkins and eight ketchup packets just to eat a burger and fries. What a waste!! Americans need to rediscover the benefits of a home cooked family dinner. Environmentally, less packaging is used in home cooked meals and less food waste is produced. Financially, it is much cheaper to eat at home, while the nutritional benefits of a home cooked meal are reason enough to eat out less and cook home more. Seems like a winning situation for everyone...


Image courtesy of: http://www.creativereview.co.uk/crblog/bobbys-burger-palace/