"Go Green", but when will 'they' start offering their green ways to us?

[Emplosion]

When I was walking home from the bus today, I ran into my neighbor, Kay. Kay used to live in India and she still does improvement work there. She's probably the most interesting person I know.

Anyways, she and I starting having a conversation about environmental issues such as the addiction to plastic. She was talking about a party so had last weekend and how she begged Hot Lips (local pizza parlor) to buy their potato compostable dishware from them for her party. Fortunately, they agreed, but afterwords she found out that the potato dishware has to be industrial composted. So she calls up Waste Management to see when she could drop it off and they tell her only one company (she didn't tell me the name) picks it, moreover, they only pick up from restaurants! She was able to drop it off at Hot Lips (by another round of begging), but she was frustrated that she couldn't do it herself.

She and I talked about how if potato dishware were available to buy how many people we knew would use it. We also discussed how we would be going about getting that commercially available.

I'm curious about what you think about this.
Would you buy potato dishware?
Does anyone know anything that could possibly push this to stores?
Does anyone else feel obligated to write to their senators or mayors on this issue? (I'm starting one myself)
What do you think?
(THINK OF ALL THE PLASTIC WE COULD SAVE.)

[The Angry Hippie]

i didn't know it existed... my all natural store carries bamboo sporks, knifes, spoons, and chop stix :) no prossessing required

[Emplosion]

i didn't know it existed... my all natural store carries bamboo sporks, knifes, spoons, and chop stix :) no prossessing required
The two out of three natural places use potato utensils if they serve food, but you can't buy them there. I can understand the use of bamboo utensils, but are they available in mass quantities for one use only? Can they decompose?

[swtater123]

You can get them online and they're supposed to be compostable.
http://www.gaiam.com/product/eco-home-outdoor/outdoor/composting/spudware--174-+knives%2C+set+of+50.do

[saintlike_ontheoutside]

Does that mean you can put them in your compost bin or are you still supposed to throw them away and then they'll decompose? I'm not understanding.

[klc1168]

Like Hippie, I never knew such a thing existed. But I am living in BFE WV. We have always been about 10-20 years behind the times.

[The Angry Hippie]

http://www.greenfeet.com/Bambudesc.asp?ic=6010%2D00656%2D0000&Tp=
these are kinda like the ones my store carries but more fancy(pricy)...ya they're sold a disposable and since they're bamboo they are biodegradable.

[jsedai_77]

what kills me about the non ease of going green is....
well we live on an AIr Force Base and if you live in housing then it's "mandatory" recycling. to do this the provide you with ONE blue bin you're supposed to then go GET paper bags (from who knows where) to sort your recyclables and then place said bags in the bin. on pick up day they take everything but your bin. so now you have to go and find more paper bags.
I called the recycle center here on the base and they were like yeah I know it's retarded....when we get more money we're going to try a new sorting system..in the mean time here try these *hands me assorted smaller bins* (usually the kind kept in offices) and says he'll try to get the pick up guy no to take my smaller bins....well that worked ONE week..the next week the SAME (it's the same pick up guy every week) guy takes my smaller bins. so now I'm back to square one, tryeing to fugure out where to get paper bags or going back to the recycle center to get more smaller bins. I think they should just have like a dumpster area every block or so like they do our mail boxes this would save on time and $ for the whole trash thing.
I try not to use disposable dishware or flatware (I've been known to put plastic flatware in the dishwasher and reuse them) about the only disposable plastic thing we use is zip top bags for meat storage in the freezer (I buy bulk amounts and then divide them into what we need for one meal) and I just cant' bring myself to try washing them and reusing them...ICK

[The Angry Hippie]

here u have to buy these blue plastic bins (they're about 10 gallons) and they're $45 bucks a pop... WTF? we got ours when the people b4 us moved out thank goodness. We are to mix plastic, glass, and metal in these, I can literally fill one of these in a day tho it usually takes 2-3 but then either play jenga for the rest of the week or i usually just make a pile next to it....

anyways my big problem is these bins have no lids and i have no garage so it has to stay outside so most mornings i have to put all the stuff back in the bucket because raccoons tipped over and searched through it hoping to find scraps.

i called asking if i could just use my full sized garbage can with a locking lid and put a recycle sign on the outside of it they said no! so i did it anyway but none of the garbage men will take it :(

its friggin retarted...my mother has this HUGE bin plastic bin with rolling wheels and a locking lid that the city GAVE her... but they want me to buy these measly little bins for 45 a piece BASTARDS!

[klc1168]

Well at least you guys have pick up.

Where I live, I have to drive 25 minutes to drop my recycling at the local center. Hardly green when I'm on the road for 50 minutes. Plus they also don't take glass and only take type 1 and type 2 plastic. I have a box that I put cardboard (like cereal boxes) and junk mail into and a big rubbermaid tote that I throw my steel cans and plastic into. I don't get a newspaper or subscribe to any magazines and I never buy soda or beer in cans so I rarely have aluminum. I never use disposable plates or flatware. Once every other week or so; I make the trip to the plant and drop it off.

Until the recycling place starts taking glass and other plastic, that is as green as it is getting in my house, except 90% of my light bulbs are compact florecents

[ladyjanewriter]

I've never heard of it till now! It sounds pretty cool.

But...I wonder what happens if someone's allergic to potatoes? I'd hate for someone to accidentally have some sort of deadly reaction and not know to watch out for silverware.

My neighborhood's split between two wards - one has recycling, one doesn't. I don't even bother recycling bottles/cans/newspapers at home anymore, because my garbage collector just throws the recycling in with the rest of the trash. :( But at work, they do.