An American family I visited a while ago would use paper plates and plastic forks for every meal at home to save on dishes. I was shocked, but they seemed to think it was standard behaviour in the US. Is it?
Growing up, my family rarely used paper plates except in a few circumstances - parties where there are more people than you have plates for, and when going on a picnic. Aside from that we never used paper plates.
You're most likely to see paper plates and plastic forks at picnics/cookouts and occasionally large gatherings where you may not have enough non-disposable dishes to serve everyone.
The justifications I've heard is that it's a lot of labor saved if the family is sufficiently large and the woman is expected to do all the cooking and cleaning.
To save what, money or labor? I fail to see how this could be economical in the sense "cheaper"?