# Do you use paper plates?



## Kayelle (Feb 25, 2018)

Never
Always
Sometimes  
Care to elaborate?


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## CakePoet (Feb 25, 2018)

I only use paper plates as cake or cookies trays for giving away at Christmas, Easter or Birthdays.


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## Andy M. (Feb 25, 2018)

Only for cookouts.


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## Rocklobster (Feb 25, 2018)

Depending on what it is..I like to use them for take out, like pizza, fried chicken or chinese in front of the tv, but, if it requires a knife then we go to regular plates..


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## RPCookin (Feb 25, 2018)

I use them in the obvious places... when we are having a crowd in an informal setting or gathering and don't want to have 2 or more loads for the dishwasher.  I hate it when I'm still working on the aftermath of a party a day after the event.  

We also use them occasionally when camping - like if we are having a quick breakfast before packing up to move to a new campground.  Easier to just rinse out the CI pan and toss a couple of forks in the sink to wash later at supper.

We don't use them a lot.  We had 50 or 60 plates and some plastic cups and utensils left over after a big yard party about 20 years ago.  14 years later we gave the last of it away when we were packing to move to the Bahamas.  I do try to minimize my landfill contributions when possible.


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## roadfix (Feb 25, 2018)

Only for cookouts


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## PrincessFiona60 (Feb 25, 2018)

I use the same paper plate for sandwiches several days in a row.  If it's something sloppy, it goes on a real plate.


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## CakePoet (Feb 25, 2018)

Should say in Sweden paper plates are put in the recycle bin for cardboard so I dont add to the landfill.


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## Roll_Bones (Feb 25, 2018)

I keep coated paper plates at arms reach in the kitchen.  I don't buy expensive paper plates.  I look for very inexpensive.
There are so many other uses for them besides eating on them.
They are great for cooking utensils as I'm cooking.
I use them a lot at lunch time.
Work great in the microwave.
We have those basket type (weaved type) plate holders so they can be used for some meals.  Some, but not all meals.

I use plastic baskets and bi-fold wax sheets for many things as well.  I just had pot stickers in one.  Enough room for the food and a small dipping bowl.

Anything to make kitchen chores easier,  I'm totally up for.  I love to cook, but hate to wash dishes.


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## Kayelle (Feb 25, 2018)

We never use them for our dinners, but almost always for lunch. Like PF, if  it's for a sandwich sometimes for several days. 

I find them very useful for food  prep (mise en place).

I keep the heavy weight paper plates between skillets for storage, the very thin ones for between fine china plates.

I'm not concerned about landfills with paper plates but I think styrofoam plates  should be outlawed.


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## roadfix (Feb 25, 2018)

For the money, Costco's paper plates rock.  ...   even their paper bowls and desert plates.


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## Kayelle (Feb 25, 2018)

roadfix said:


> For the money, Costco's paper plates rock.  ...   even their paper bowls and desert plates.



Paper cups too. I'd never buy these paper goods at the grocery.


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## Steve Kroll (Feb 25, 2018)

I'm assuming the question refers to using them at home. Although I have used them (I mean, obviously, I think everyone has used paper plates at some point), I voted "never" because I don't use them around the house. The last time I bought any was for a cookout at a park. That was maybe two years ago, and I still have the leftovers sitting in the cupboard.


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## Whiskadoodle (Feb 25, 2018)

I agree with Roadfix.  Costco paper plates are sturdy.  I bought what may amount to a 17 year supply.  I gave a stack to the kids to cushion  between their regular dishes when they were packing to  move to  their new house, plus about a week ahead DIL informed the kitchen was closing for the duration.

I gave another stack to Dx for summer picnics/ cook outs.  And I still have a lot.  

I  use paper for lunch, sandwiches mostly, unless it's something gloopy.
Yes, they get re-used several days in a row.  

Dinners in front of the tv/ sports.  Pizza.  Back yard.    

I would like to step up my game and find some of those oval plastic baskets with paper liners that bars use when they serve burgers/ fries/ wings etc.


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## Andy M. (Feb 25, 2018)

I like real dishes. Makes me feel grown up. I also like to use the good China for holiday dinners.  SO sill sometimes try to put out paper for dessert but I resist. Since I do the dishes, no one complains.


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## Rocklobster (Feb 25, 2018)

Andy M. said:


> I SO sill sometimes try to put out paper for dessert but I resist. Since I do the dishes, no one complains.


Thanks for reminding me..I forgot to mention an other occasion when I also use paper plates is when it is my turn to do the dishes


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## Cheryl J (Feb 25, 2018)

I voted 'sometimes'.  I almost always have a stack of coated 'designed' paper plates (I feel like they're not quite as bad as the plain white, silly, I know ), but it still takes me a long time to go through a package.  

As others have mentioned, I too only use them for sandwiches, or a cold quick snack.  Often Tyler will want a mid afternoon snack of sliced apples or carrots, or a cookie or two, and that's when the paper plates get pulled out as well.  He doesn't care. 

Funny...as Andy said, I NEVER use paper plates for dinner. But then again, I always have dinner seated at the dining room table, even though it's just me. 

Fun thread, Kay!


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## caseydog (Feb 25, 2018)

I use paper plates to re-heat things in the microwave -- sometimes as a lid over a bowl when I'm heating something that will splatter. I'll also sometimes use them to eat from, if I'm having a burger or sandwich. I don't use a lot of them, because they can be a waste of money, and they are no good for something like steak -- they aren't sturdy enough.

Now, on a related product, I use very few paper towels. I have a large supply of terry and microfiber towels I get cheap from the automotive section at COSTCO, and wash them to reuse over-and-over. Here again, it is a money saver. Plus, they work much better for cleanups than paper towels. 

As for environmental concerns, I live in Texas, and folks here are proud of their "carbon footprints" and pass laws and do things just to piss off the "tree-huggers." For me, conservation is more about saving MY money. If it helps the planet, that is a coincidental bonus. 

CD


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## Aunt Bea (Feb 25, 2018)

Very rarely.

I never like spending money on things that are intended to be thrown away after a single use.  About the only exception is TP and an occasional roll of paper towels.

I agree with *CD*, sometimes being cheap and being green go hand in hand.


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## buckytom (Feb 25, 2018)

We use them for larger parties, especially if there'll be a lot of kids. Not for the special holiday parties with just family, like Thanksgiving or Christmas, but when we have summer bbqs, or my son's team's meetings and parties.

 So I voted "sometimes".

And yes, they get recycled. I still beat my neighbors every week by putting out 2 full garbage cans of recyclables, while they sometimes don't put out anything at all. I'm hoping to shame them into saving the planet, lol.


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## Rocklobster (Feb 25, 2018)

I don't want to hijack this thread, but I always wonder if the fossil fuels being burned by all of the recycling trucks and machinery in this world is worse for the planet than burying it in land fills...


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## Aunt Bea (Feb 25, 2018)

Rocklobster said:


> I don't want to hijack this thread, but I always wonder if the fossil fuels being burned by all of the recycling trucks and machinery in this world is worse for the planet than burying it in land fills...



I think that you make a valid point. 

When we lived in the country and had our own burn barrel it was probably better for the environment than going to the expense of building/buying a garbage truck, taking the trash to a landfill or recycling plant several miles away and concentrating the contamination. 

I suppose the current system is better for city folks.


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## buckytom (Feb 25, 2018)

I've read studies that if nothing else, aluminum should always be recycled. It takes a heck of a lot of energy to make it new, but a fraction to make from recycled.


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## caseydog (Feb 25, 2018)

Aunt Bea said:


> I think that you make a valid point.
> 
> When we lived in the country and had our own burn barrel it was probably better for the environment than going to the expense of building/buying a garbage truck, taking the trash to a landfill or recycling plant several miles away and concentrating the contamination.
> 
> *I suppose the current system is better for city folks.*



Yeah, I'd say burn barrels in every yard would not be a viable solution here in the burbs of Dallas. 

CD


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## Katie H (Feb 25, 2018)

Our reply would have to be "never" because I couldn't tell you the last time we purchased paper plates.

Our paper consumption is next to nothing, except for toilet paper.

No paper napkins because cloth napkins have been part of our table since the children were babies...'60s.  Almost no paper towel use either.  I usually buy a "block" of paper towels from Sam's Club once a year.  That's all we need.

I'd really have to look for some paper plates if asked to present same.


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## TATTRAT (Feb 25, 2018)

Depends on the occasion.


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## roadfix (Feb 25, 2018)

Most of our paper waste comes from the daily junk mail we receive.


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## RPCookin (Feb 25, 2018)

buckytom said:


> We use them for larger parties, especially if there'll be a lot of kids. Not for the special holiday parties with just family, like Thanksgiving or Christmas, but when we have summer bbqs, or my son's team's meetings and parties.
> 
> So I voted "sometimes".
> 
> And yes, they get recycled. I still beat my neighbors every week by putting out 2 full garbage cans of recyclables, while they sometimes don't put out anything at all. I'm hoping to shame them into saving the planet, lol.



We don't get recycle pickup.  We have to take it down to the bins ourselves at the Town Hall 4 blocks up the street (speaking of which we are due for a run this week).  Here they do steel and aluminum cans, plastic bottles and jars, cardboard, and paper.  All have to be placed in separate bins.  They do not do glass.  

We try to be as good as we can about it, but we aren't obsessive.  At least the fact that they only pick up the roll-off bins once a week cuts down on the carbon footprint from what it would be if they did home pickup.


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## PrincessFiona60 (Feb 25, 2018)

Steve Kroll said:


> I'm assuming the question refers to using them at home. Although I have used them (I mean, obviously, I think everyone has used paper plates at some point), I voted "never" because I don't use them around the house. The last time I bought any was for a cookout at a park. That was maybe two years ago, and I still have the leftovers sitting in the cupboard.



I am the "Keeper of the Family Paper stash"  I get to haul it to all gatherings, someone always brings more, "in case we run out".  When it over fills the tote I have it in I'm going to start making limits.


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## caseydog (Feb 25, 2018)

RPCookin said:


> We don't get recycle pickup.  We have to take it down to the bins ourselves at the Town Hall 4 blocks up the street (speaking of which we are due for a run this week).  Here they do steel and aluminum cans, plastic bottles and jars, cardboard, and paper.  All have to be placed in separate bins.  They do not do glass.
> 
> We try to be as good as we can about it, but we aren't obsessive.  At least the fact that they only pick up the roll-off bins once a week cuts down on the carbon footprint from what it would be if they did home pickup.



We have separate trash and recycling carts. Black for trash, and blue for recycling. The trucks have a giant arm and claw that grabs them, and dumps them into the truck. 

CD


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## Caslon (Feb 25, 2018)

Kayelle said:


> We never use them for our dinners, but almost always for lunch. Like PF, if  it's for a sandwich sometimes for several days.
> 
> I find them very useful for food  prep (mise en place).
> 
> ...



I use them for almost the exact same things (only the 8" ones).  Lunches, food prep, defrosting, etc. I too use them in my oven's bottom drawer to keep skillet bottom residue off the drawer bottom.  I buy the lightly coated ones ("resists oils") by the hundred stacks. If I'm lucky, I get a stack where they're not pressed together so hard that I have to peel each one apart from the other. I find them extremely useful, indispensable.


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## Rocklobster (Feb 25, 2018)

caseydog said:


> We have separate trash and recycling carts. Black for trash, and blue for recycling. The trucks have a giant arm and claw that grabs them, and dumps them into the truck.
> 
> CD



That metal bar across the front where they hook onto the bin to lift it breaks quite often..I fixed a couple of them with good ol' Canadian ingenuity..a piece of hockey stick, of course..


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## Caslon (Feb 25, 2018)

I try and recycle, but not paper plates. I don't have the space to have two trash receptacles in my kitchen.


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## buckytom (Feb 25, 2018)

Rocklobster said:


> That metal bar across the front where they hook onto the bin to lift it breaks quite often..I fixed a couple of them with good ol' Canadian ingenuity..a piece of hockey stick, of course..




Lol, my wife almost threw out a few of my old, broken hockey sticks when we moved. 

They can be repurposed into so many things. 

My old veggie garden looked like a CCM hockey stick cemetary before the plants grew in.

I jam the sliding door to the deck with a measured and cut Titan.

And you never know when you'll need a Mylec splint for an injury...


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## Cooking Goddess (Feb 26, 2018)

I would need an "almost never" check box. We used to host a post-holidays gathering at our house every mid-January. I would get paper plates to use since we could get upwards of 30 people nibbling and drinking. We stopped holding those when my feet started to crap out on me a decade or a dozen years ago. I still have many of the paper plates left and pull one or two out about once a year. I'd better start using them up, though, so they still aren't here whenif we ever move. 

We also use cloth napkins, cloth towels for produce, and rarely use paper towels. Even though we recycle everything that can be recycled, the recycling cart (our service uses the same bins that *CD* posted) goes to the curb about every third pick-up, or every six weeks. Usually it still isn't full. We get our garbage picked up every other week, and our cart is rarely more than half-full. They won't pick up any less often than every-other week, though.

I should take in other people's garbage for a small fee.  Quite a few neighbors can't close the lid on their carts even with their weekly pick-up. 

When it comes to our carbon footprint, we wear baby shoes.


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## Caslon (Feb 26, 2018)

Cooking Goddess said:


> We also use cloth napkins, cloth towels for produce, and rarely use paper towels.




Paper napkins.  They do not make a good medium for laying anything on... chopping...anything.  It clings like you wouldn't believe, to both meats and vegetables. I end up having to peel it off.


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## Cooking Goddess (Feb 26, 2018)

You can't dry anything with a paper napkin, just daintily blot your mouth. If you ate something sticky, there's a chance you'll end up with a paper moustache.  I'm talking about blotting lettuce or drying a fruit like an apple with a paper towel. Used to do it in the past; haven't done it for...well, decades.


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## caseydog (Feb 26, 2018)

Rocklobster said:


> That metal bar across the front where they hook onto the bin to lift it breaks quite often..I fixed a couple of them with good ol' Canadian ingenuity..a piece of hockey stick, of course..



Our trucks don't use that bar to lift. They grab with a big two-armed claw, and squeeze the trash carts. Every once in a while, one falls into the truck. It happened to me once. 

CD


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## tenspeed (Feb 26, 2018)

caseydog said:


> We have separate trash and recycling carts. Black for trash, and blue for recycling. The trucks have a giant arm and claw that grabs them, and dumps them into the truck.
> 
> CD


Wow, Casey, you must live in quite a neighborhood to have monogrammed trash bins.  What does the W stand for?


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## CakePoet (Feb 26, 2018)

Paper plates are  only safe for microwaves  if it is 100% paper, if it has coating it is not.


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## CharlieD (Feb 26, 2018)

Unfortunately I I do, and way too often. It is just so easy to throw it away instead of washing that I have a whole stack seating on the table. Though they have gotten to be so expensive in the last 3 years, I am seriously making an effort to stop.


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## roadfix (Feb 26, 2018)

Driving into work this morning I heard on the radio that the city of Malibu is thinking of banning use of plastic disposable utensils, mainly to keep their beaches clean.


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## CharlieD (Mar 6, 2018)

roadfix said:


> Driving into work this morning I heard on the radio that the city of Malibu is thinking of banning use of plastic disposable utensils, mainly to keep their beaches clean.





That is the most disgusting thing when people leave the garbage after themselves.


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## CraigC (Mar 6, 2018)

CharlieD said:


> That is the most disgusting thing when people leave the garbage after themselves.



Yes and too many think that cigarette butts aren't garbage!


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## buckytom (Mar 6, 2018)

Smokers seem to think the world is their ashtray.


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## CakePoet (Mar 6, 2018)

Garbage trucks in my area is run on fuel made our compost  waste.  And I get fine if I dont recycle and is found out,  our landlord has built a recycling point  next to car park, it is a little yellow house. Most  recycling point for renters are yellow here.


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## roadfix (Mar 6, 2018)

Our garbage trucks run on natural gas.    
Three separate trucks come every Wednesday to pick up 3 different colored trash bins.    Blue bin for recyclables, green bin for yard clippings, and the black bin for all other trash.

And I was just on line this morning reviewing and paying my current bi-monthly home utility bill which includes electricity, water, sewage, and sanitation, all in a single bill.    They're charging me $98 for sanitation (trash pickup).


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## GotGarlic (Mar 6, 2018)

Rarely. Usually to give things away. We used to have parties more often and I still have small coated paper party plates from 2007 I bought for our German exchange student's going-away party in the colors of the German flag


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## Rocklobster (Mar 6, 2018)

buckytom said:


> Smokers seem to think the world is their ashtray.


My gf smokes..I call her my stinky little butt sucker..she no like that...

I can be romantic like that, sometimes..


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## Kaneohegirlinaz (Mar 8, 2018)

(so I'm late to the party, again!)

Okay, so I voted to elaborate...

Yes, I use paper plates from time to time 
(not often though, much to the chagrin of DH, he thinks ALL meals should be on paper plates, no fuss, no muss) 
to serve a quick meal on, as others have already said, such as sandwiches and non-fork-and-knife foods on.




[file photo-Chicken & Kielbasa Gumbo)


I also use them for mes en place, very handy.

And let me say here that we have a trash-pick-up-company that
goes through the stuff in our can and picks out the recyclables and ASKS us _not to_.
No really!  I've gone to there facility.

I buy the el-cheap-o REALLY thin plates, y'know, the 100 count for about two bucks or so.  

I also share some of my baked goods and so forth with our neighbors on these paper plates... I don't want them to have to stress over bring back a plate, y'know?


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## Cooking Goddess (Mar 9, 2018)

Kaneohegirlinaz said:


> ...And let me say here that we have a trash-pick-up-company that
> goes through the stuff in our can and picks out the recyclables and ASKS us _not to_.
> No really!  I've gone to there facility....


I believe you, because we left the same kind of trash service behind when we had to relocate to MA. For ten years I had been used to putting almost everything out in the trash, on the curb, no limit. The only exceptions were paper and glass - they asked that you drop that off at designated "igloos" and bins.  The beauty was, once the trash left your curb and arrived at the recycling/waste center, most everything was put to use. Plastics, steel, etc - recycled. Yard waste - composted. Garbage-garbage - burned and reduced to pellets, which were then used to produce electricity at a nearby electric generating facility. Now, if my trash won't fit in my rolling bin, I need to pay extra to have it removed. And "extra" means a lot of $$$.


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## Kaneohegirlinaz (Mar 9, 2018)

Cooking Goddess said:


> I believe you, because we left the same kind of trash service behind when we had to relocate to MA. For ten years I had been used to putting almost everything out in the trash, on the curb, no limit. The only exceptions were paper and glass -



Love it!
It was that way for in Kaneohe as well in Southern Arizona, but here in N.AZ, it's everything into the bin.
The other bonus is, living in a neighborhood that's still under construction, we can take our over-sized and excess (too much to fit in our bin) rubbish to the big dumpsters!  Our Construction Superintendent, my pal, tells everyone when they close escrow, to take their emptied moving boxes to the dumpsters, why pay extra to the trash pick up company?  Isn't he the best?


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## Cheryl J (Mar 9, 2018)

We have weekly trash pick up, and twice a month for recycling pick up.  We get 3 times per year of 'extra' curbside pick up at no charge...anything over that we get charged for, although I'm not sure what that charge is.


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