> can be water stabilized with hydrophobic coatings
So when they make takeout containers out of this it's going to be coated with... something. I am suspicious of all these coatings they're slapping on compostable food containers these days.
So when they make takeout containers out of this it's going to be coated with... something. I am suspicious of all these coatings they're slapping on compostable food containers these days.
Apparently soybean wax works well: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7435775/
Though not for hot foods. It'll only work up to 50°C.
I don't understand why our civilization has still not replaced almost everything with bamboo (though technically the bamboo is grass, not wood). It grows fast (and an order of magnitude better sink for CO2 than trees) and seems to be very usable as bamboo utensils demonstrate for example.
They're good enough for transport, though they do degrade pretty fast (they'll get leaky after a day or so).
Just like them labeling a container with a plastic lid as ‘biodegradable’.
If we could unify enough to make collective demands about food packaging, and push for aggressive banning of most plastics in the food and retail industry, something might actually change.
Until then we can expect for things to get irreparably worse, as we trade immediate convenience for posterus generational suffering.
Chances are that you or your surviving family members WILL successfully sue Walmart after you've gotten getting E. coli from deli section. They can either be brave and take your poorly sanitized glass bioreactors, or just give you bleached and prepackaged salad in transparent dinosaur juice and forget about all what I'm saying. The latter is arguably the better option for basically everybody.
I've also worked on organic neighborhood farm, where people would come to our location, grab vegetables with their hands and place them into their own cloth bags. We used plastic for items that went on store shelves, but everything else we tried to avoid them. We delivered vegetables to restaurants in cardboard boxes (which probably had thin plastic linings on them).
Steps can be taken to massively reduce waste in food service; the problem is no one wants to change their lifestyle. They'd rather get takeout 3-10 times a week than visit a local organic farm or start/find a cooking co-op.
> Chances are that you or your surviving family members WILL successfully sue Walmart after you've gotten getting E. coli from deli section
I don't eat meat and my only real risk of E. coli is from storebought greens. It's a non-zero risk, and I would prefer to get my greens from a farm, but they are hard to find in my state. Our own organic farm was the constant target of police and DEA raids, as they were convinced we were drug-producing hippies. The state DEA agent spit on the driveway once and bragged about how confiscating and selling the farm would pay his salary for years. So there is a real challenge here, it's not just on us. It's also on our government officials.
Besides, we can make hemp plastics, biodegradable plastics, etc. But there's no money in that as long as cheap single-use plastic is pervasive in the industry. What I can say with certainty is our current way of doing things is irresponsibly unsustainable, and we are failing in our duties to consider posterity. I'm watching my generation turn into an even more entitled bunch than the baby boomers when it comes to convenience at the sake of posterity.
There is an increasing use of paper takeout containers. Awful.
Also leftovers are a thing.
Are you familiar with glass? Leftovers are a solved problem.
This is exactly what a lifestyle change looks like. I'm sorry, but there are exceedingly few such necessary changes which will introduce more convenience into your life. Most of them will be at an inconvenience.
Our problem was letting ourselves get conditioned into normalizing unsustainable habits. A large amount of plastic waste needs to be eliminated, and if you can't be bothered to bring your own leftover containers to a restaurant, maybe you should be getting smaller portions.
But yeah less takeout is an okay choice too. Like, I love the taste and texture of meat, I'm designed to, but I abstain from eating it because of the environmental and ethical impact of the global meat industry. It's a sacrifice, one I'm often ridiculed for down here in the Southern US as well.
Assuming I have a car. Let me just carry some glassware around with me on the train just in case.
Actually, all of this and you have a car? Talk about prioritizing convenience over long-term sustainability. Consider using public transit instead; this is exactly what a lifestyle change looks like.
1. I don't have a car, and I try to leverage buses, trains, etc. when I can. Or I just walk.
2. My current city, which I have recently moved back to temporarily, is notorious for its lack of walkability or adequate public transit. Not every city is like San Francisco. Many cities in the south are explicitly designed to make things difficult for poor people, and to segregate them.
My advice was for people who do have cars. If you don't, it is not difficult to carry something around in a bag if you regularly eat out and take home leftovers. I felt no need to be exhaustive, the advice is easily modifiable to other situations.
In your rushed attempt to paint me as a hypocrite, all you've done is get an egg on your face. It sounds like you're the one who needs to change your lifestyle, and be less presumptuous.
https://www.clickorlando.com/news/2019/09/26/heres-how-hot-t...
“In a locked vehicle, a dark dashboard, steering wheel or seat can often reach temperature ranges of 180 - 200 degrees F, which then warms the air trapped inside a vehicle.” 194F is 90C.
And that’s Florida, other parts of the globe have higher outdoor temperatures which result in higher internal temperatures.
90C seems completely believable for hot climates.
Ever seen a car on fire? I have.
Ever seen a car on fire caused by heating from the sun? Well maybe not. But I have seen an egg get cooked on the roof of a car as a demonstration.
London isn't famous for hot weather, but that may change soon, and not because of global warming: The design of a new skyscraper in the city is melting cars and setting buildings on fire....
<https://www.nbcnews.com/sciencemain/london-skyscraper-can-me...>
Only one of several examples. Also the Vdara hotel in the somewhat more probable location of Las Vegas, NV, the Nasher Sculpture Center and Museum Tower, both in Dallas, TX:
<https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/when-buildings-attack-...>
People survive because it's not 50°C all the time in those hot places. And the wet bulb temperature is lower, so sweating works (just about) to regulate body temperature. Mostly air conditioning and shelter, though.
> According to a study recently published in Nature Medicine, more than 60 000 people died because of last year’s summer heatwaves across Europe.
It's not necessary for your home food storage to be able to survive temperatures that you can't. If it happens to the food in your home, it will happen to you too.
> no one can use any object in such a climate, because they'd die.
By the way, I know you can survive that heat because I did. No air conditioner. It was excruciating and I don’t wish it upon anyone. Well, maybe on climate change deniers, it would probably do them some good to suffer through it to believe the science. They probably wouldn’t but at least they wouldn’t be able to move to make it worse, either.
> More than 1,300 people died during this year's Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia as the faithful faced extreme high temperatures at Islamic holy sites in the desert kingdom
You've likely been eating or using food grade petroleum products your whole life.