Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Take what you need, no more

I was craving greasy junk food yesterday and I went out for a fast food burger with my co-workers. The combo of course includes fries and a drink. I can never finish the drinks, actually I barely make a dent every time. So after paying the regular price I tried to tell the cashier to give me a small drink instead of regular size. I’ve tried this many times before without success.

I try asking for a smaller cup or I try to get them to fill the cup to half. I usually just get blank stares.

Then they give me a whole stack of napkins with my meal, which I barely used.

As I am thinking how much waste there is, I see a couple of kids taking thick stack of napkins out of the dispenser, by the garbage people are throwing away trays with extra forks and spoons they didn’t use, piles of fries they didn’t finish.

Maybe that’s why I get such weird looks when I ask for less. Because people would rather have more and throw away what they don’t use, than be bothered with not having enough.

How about we all stop and think about what we need beforehand, and take just what we need? Waste is so sad. We all share this world of resources. Just because we have a society of abundance doesn’t mean we should waste it this way.

2 comments:

Canadian Saver said...

Good post!! There are so many of those paper napkins and plastic utensils that are wasted because we don't need to pay for them....... if we paid 10 cents per napkin or ketchup packet, we wouldn't grab a handful "just in case"!

Esme said...

Canadian Saver,
When I lived in Sydney that's what they did. They charged for everything. Sushi, for example, they charged for chopsticks, soysauce, ginger. It was hard to adjust to at first. But really, I think the difference is that the cost is up front in Australia, whereas, it's worked into the price in North America.