Admittedly, there is something infinitely convenient about disposable cutlery. After all, it’s light, easy to carry about, and once you’re done with it, you can chuck it in the bin and never worry about it again.
Reusable cutlery, for its part, requires cleaning and storage. But who has time for that? You do.
Seriously, it’s a far better investment—not just for you—but for the environment as well.
In this article, we take a look at why it’s smarter to go for reusable anything rather than disposable. We cover the arguments and the benefits that a little extra effort will get you.
Reusable Is Much More Affordable
Image from: Flickr by Peggy_Marco
Buying disposable cutlery means a constant, consistent daily expense.
Even if that expense is rather small—especially if you skimp on quality, that’s all still going to add up eventually. What seems like a small expense today is going to be quite the expense in a year!
The alternative, reusable cutlery, is a one-time expense.Unless you’re exceedingly careless and manage to lose the set you’ve bought, these won’t cost you a dime more their entire lifetime.
In today’s world where every little bit counts, the kind of savings this brings adds up quickly.
Reusable Is Far More Durable
For all their convenience, eating with disposable cutlery isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
For one thing, these tend to be painfully small. For another thing, regardless of the quality, they’re still essentially flimsy plastic. This means that they might break at absolutely the worst time—like while you try to eat.
No matter how “cheap” you go with reusable cutlery, it’s still going to be more durable.
The really “affordable” ones might bend a little when used with a little more vigour, but at least they’re never going to break apart when you’re eating.
Reusable Is Way Healthier
Consider the disposable cutlery handed to you. Where was it stored? Was it handled by someone with dirty hands? What were the manufacturing conditions it was born into?
Did its maker have any true quality control? Disinfection? Higher standards?
Of course, you could argue and then go and wash your disposable cutlery. But that defeats the purpose of it being far more convenient.
You’d be better off with reusable cutlery. Unless you’re terrible at the basic task of washing things up, you’re golden.
Reusable Is Kinder to the Environment
Image from: Flickr by Dan4th Nicholas
Disposable cutlery is the product of mass manufacturing processes—which aren’t too kind to Mother Earth, to begin with.
Considerable energy goes into it, for one. For another, the processes involved also require a lot of natural resources. And when you’re done using them, they get chucked in a bin.
While some of these can and are recycled, a lot gets dumped into landfills where they build up and collect over time, causing a lot of dangerous waste to the environment.
Reusable cutlery already solves that problem—all of those problems, in fact. That’s in its name.
Reusable Cutlery Options
When you say reusable cutlery, people automatically think metals. And, indeed, the best kinds of reusable cutlery are, in fact, made of sturdy metal.
Apart from being the easiest to clean and the most durable, metal cutlery is also the most sanitised due to the processes in which they are made.
Increasingly, bamboo is also proving to be a great alternative to metal reusable cutlery. It’s significantly lighter to be a wide margin. This particular material also inherits the strength and tensile durability of the plant from which it is hewn.
Lastly, and kind of amusingly, some reusable cutlery is actually made from plastic! What makes this unique is the particular treatment of the plastics when they’re being manufactured. This ensures that they last longer than the average plastic spoon, that they’re also more sanitary than the average plastic spoon, and are just as effective as reusable spoons made from other materials.
About the Crockery and All Other Things
The same arguments above still apply to other items like plates, dishes, and cups. Even if you talk about the paper-hewn versions, you’re still looking at a lot of waste generated that might be recycled. Might.
This means that there’s still the off-chance that they build up into a nasty, disgusting pile in some landfill somewhere.
The central idea behind reusables is compacted efficiency and true awareness. Investing in these long term is smart and the only option worth considering.
If you’re all for the environment, it’s important to act like it. For workplaces and companies looking for ecologically friendly products that help contribute to the environment and improvement of office life, Alsco is the partner they can trust.
For years, we’ve been the most reliable and called upon commercial solutions providers for companies this side of the world.
Call us today and we’ll be more than happy to find the best solutions for your office needs.
Photo: cocoparisienne
