Wasteful practices that bug you

Sorry.. a bit of a rant thread. First let me make it clear that I do waste things. So this is not about being holier-than-thou with regard to waste in general. I think you have to pick your poison when you indulge in wasteful practices.

However, there are some wasteful practices that just bug me, and I'm wondering if you guys see wasteful things that you see other people do that drive you crazy, too?

This post is inspired by something that my DIL/DS did this morning. They are doing their Saturday chores in my house, which means they are helping to clean it, which is awesome of course! But they have a tendency to throw away the vacuum bag way too soon, just because it might be "stale." My vacuum bags are for my Miele vacuum, and they are really, really high quality bags--they're almost like engineered diapers. They're made of cloth, and frankly, I often do what I can to reuse them (sometimes I can't--it's hard to get the stuff out without breaking the little plastic piece that keeps it in the vacuum. Anyway, one bag is $4. I bought two boxes of 8 two years ago, and until they moved in, I had only gone through half. They've already thrown out 4 in two months of living here. I'm not particularly passive aggressive about it--I already pointed out to them that I like to reuse them, which horrified my DIL I'm sure, and I will ask them to chip in on the next purchase. But it's one of those emotional hot buttons.

I also am perplexed by people who won't eat leftovers. Why not?? You'd rather throw out a decent meal just because you'd rather have something different? I don't get it. Of course, that's totally their business. I'm not paying their food bill and to each his own, but it still bugs me.

Those are my two pet peeves in the area of waste for the moment. I'm not perfect by a long shot, but those are two things that just rub me the wrong way.

What are yours?

One (of the millions) of my pet peeves is people buying stuff like jello/pudding in plastic cups that will last forever in the earth.
On trash day, as I drive to town, looking at people's trash out, I feel like the only person who recycles.

I agree catherine........why wouldn't a person eat leftovers? I had a friend who threw them out too. Maybe they just need to starve for awhile to appreciate them? Leftovers are really good! Some of my favorite foods are leftovers. :)

I got a new Riccar vacuum about 2 years ago. I was disappointed to see how substantial their filters were.........like cloth. Seems like someone could invent a reusable filter. (But people probably wouldn't buy it, as they might have to get their hands dirty!). I use mine until they are more than full. I think your DS and DIL maybe have a germ phobia? That's just wasteful.

I think most of us in this country (U.S.) are so used to excess and over-abundance that throwing things out prematurely has become second nature. :(

Paper towels.

Granted, I use some paper towels. But I go through about 2-3 rolls of them a year. My sister? She is currently sharing my apartment 3 days a week, due to her work schedule. This past week, she used three paper towels, wadded into a bunch, to remove a small food scrap from the kitchen sink. I'd have just picked it up with my fingers and thrown it out. She uses paper towels to clean the kitchen counters, even though I have clean rags and a sponge for just that type of job. I use cloth towels a lot in the kitchen and have pointed them out to her, but she still dries freshly washed fruits and vegetables on several layers of paper towels.

In the bathroom at work, we have a paper towel dispenser that we need to fill ourselves when it gets empty. When we're down to the last 50 or so towels, when you pull one towel a bunch will fall out onto the floor. A) The simple solution is to, you know, put more towels in the dispenser--they are sitting in a storage cabinet less than 10 feet away. But apparently I'm the only person who has figured this out, so the floor in front of the sinks is constantly littered with towels. B) Some people just leave the towels on the floor for someone else to pick up because, having touched the floor, they are contaminated and will give you a fatal illness if you touch them. Some people will pull a new, clean towel from the dispenser and use that to pick up and throw away the fallen towels. I dare not let them see me touch the floor-contaminated towels with my bare hands when I pick them up. 'Cause, you know, washing your hands in the sink that's *right there* never crosses their minds.

The waste at work really bothers me, in particular, when there is food or catering involved. For catered events, food is brought in on large plastic trays with lots of wrapping and it all ends up in the regular trash. A lot of food waste too. If I have time, I "rescue" the plastic and aluminum, rinse it and bring it home to recycle. Our city is aiming for zero waste so at home we now have to recycle or compost literally everything and are used to cleaning and sorting. The commercial world is slow to catch up.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by pinkytoe

The waste at work really bothers me, in particular, when there is food or catering involved.

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Amen to that. My workplace has a recycle bin for bottles and cans, and another for paper, but that's about it. the cafeteria still serves food in a variety of plastic containers with no provision for recycling (unless you wash them and take them home), and the coffee machine still has a stack of styrofoam cups next to it. I think most businesses are big on being "green" when it saves them money (such as with conserving electricity), but when it comes to doing anything inconvenient, they seem to lose their enthusiasm.

My company insists that we recycle, and will not acknowledge that the program is ineffective. Most locations don't have a recycling bin. When I see a bin, it's filled with trash. Others have seen housekeeping through it all in the dumpster. But officially, in meetings, and clearly articulated, we have a recycling program. It's 1984 all over again. Say the opposite of the truth with veiled hostility toward anyone pointing out the obvious.

Correspondingly, why are there so few recycling receptacles at large public events? Our State Fair does very well in this respect, with collection containers for the eaten roast corn-on-the-cob and even containers for the foam cups in which beverages are served. But other events won't let you drop off so much as an empty plastic water bottle, readily recyclable pretty much anywhere else in town.

My election: people who keep their cars (or, worse, trucks) running just to keep the heat or lights or radio on while they're parked. I think every car I've ever owned has a key setting that keeps most electrical things alive without having a 3-liter gasoline generator going to power them. I've even arrived at the conclusion that pickups and SUVs must be very hard to start based on the number of drivers who don't seem to shut them off while shopping or idling for long periods of time. Manufacturers really ought to do something about that. >8)

I waste food and time. I love leftovers and prefer to cook stuff that will feed me for days and days longer. But, I shames me about how many fresh ingredients just pop out of my mind and never get used. This week it was an entire chicken, one of the cooked ones. I have bought those a few times since someone here wrote about how they use them, and thought to stop at the market for one on Thursday, after a very long day.

Then I remembered that I bought one on the way home on Sunday. I must have left it in the cart or at the checkout, because it is not anywhere and I did not remember buying it until Thursday. Wasted food and time, and money, and much worse than the occasional old couple of carrots or completely dried out bread. Absolutely no reason for this. My refrigerator is as tall as I am and has a bread-box sized freezer. There really is no place for food to hide in there and end up in the garbage (apartment, no way to compost anything).

Work is fine, everything, even scraps of paper are reused and recycled. The employee lounge has an easy to use recycling system and everyone seems to use it.

Way too many to name, anything I wouldn't do. The world annoys me :). Ok all that little stuff not greatly but. I hate when people don't turn off lights, fans etc. when they are not clearly going in that room at all (if they were moving around a lot in between rooms whatever but they aren't). I don't care what the lightbulbs are but for heaven sake turn them off if you obviously aren't using them, that's just pointless. I hate the waste involved in "event planning", like even green events, yes events to promote sustainability, are approached with a wasteful attitude. It's like people (people who would never not recycle) have a separate mentality for "events" where massive waste suddenly becomes ok. It leads me to conclude that events are some of the most wasteful things imaginable (don't have to be but ...) I hate cars left running in idle too but not something I encounter that often. Oh and I probably will hate a huge Hummer if I see one, and huge trucks with one person in them. I hate how cellphones are designed to be replaced every few years. I hate when people start cranking the A/C when it's 75 degrees (hey when it's 100 we all are, and begging for mercy). I hate electronic waste in the apt dumpster (which I have stupidly rescued - no wonder this apt is becoming a dump in it's own right). I hate junk mail (also because it's a darn pain to take to recycling). I hate people who fly everywhere unaware of the serious environmental impact of flying (much more than driving or trains). Food waste well some food gets wasted here. I eat leftovers but it's more because life gets so hectic.

My workplace still insists on use of styrofoam cups for coffee---they know better; they're simply lazy. I've tried...it's futile.

Also bottled water.