Speaker 1: It's Tuesday, September. I'm Oscar Emiraz from the Daily Dive
Speaker 1: podcast in Los Angeles, and this is Reopening America. Big
Speaker 1: thank you to my colleague Mo Kelly for filling in
Speaker 1: for me while I was on vacation. He did a
Speaker 1: wonderful job and we have one more story from him.
Speaker 1: Have you noticed that your trash has expanded along with
Speaker 1: your waistline with all that ordering and you've been doing
Speaker 1: during the pandemic. Tom Seats, Sama, food critic at the
Speaker 1: Washington Post, joins us with tips on minimizing your trash
Speaker 1: pilot from all those takeout containers. Joining us right now
Speaker 1: is Tom set, food critic for the Washington Post. Tom,
Speaker 1: thank you for coming on today. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: In a normal year, you'd be commenting. I would think
Speaker 1: on the food and presentation within the confines of a restaurant,
Speaker 1: But now we get to talk about to go containers
Speaker 1: and their unintended trash consequences. Let me start with this
Speaker 1: environmental implications aside what has been the trash pile up
Speaker 1: consequence for you? Well? As a food critic, I generally
Speaker 1: eat out at least ten meals a week, so I'm
Speaker 1: bringing all these containers into my home now, right and
Speaker 1: over the summer, I just said, I'm gonna start collecting
Speaker 1: me and see how much this all adds up to.
Speaker 1: So for three weeks earlier this summer, I collected packaging
Speaker 1: from about thirty different takeout orders, and I was shocked
Speaker 1: by what I got. At the end of three weeks,
Speaker 1: It's filled two big recycling containers about a hundred gallons
Speaker 1: of space altogether. And that's just one person ordering. Obviously,
Speaker 1: you know, a food could extend over order so they
Speaker 1: can sample a range of a menu. But in this case,
Speaker 1: you know, I could have been like a family of
Speaker 1: two or a family of four. Right, and just shocked me.
Speaker 1: And we spread it out on my backyard and took
Speaker 1: a photograph of it, and oh boy, did I feel guilty.
Speaker 1: Why did you feel guilty because just the trash piling
Speaker 1: up itself? Or were you thinking about environmental conditions or
Speaker 1: what have you? Like a lot of people, I do
Speaker 1: try be a good steward. I think I do a
Speaker 1: good job at recyce Lane. In my personal life and
Speaker 1: professional life. You know, I'm always sitting left over to
Speaker 1: home with friends and things like that. But in this case,
Speaker 1: I think as a lot of experts told me to.
Speaker 1: People were thinking safety and health first, and a lot
Speaker 1: of us, for many of us, were not prepared to
Speaker 1: cook up to twenty one meals a week for ourselves
Speaker 1: at home, right, So take out from restaurants has been
Speaker 1: a real lifeline. We've also been supporting restaurants that way too,
Speaker 1: especially in larger urban areas like Washington, l A, New York.
Speaker 1: You know, there's this huge spike in take out, and
Speaker 1: I wanted to be the story, but I wanted to
Speaker 1: also show myself, like, this is how much trash you're
Speaker 1: taking in just through a restaurant and is going out
Speaker 1: the back door. And again, it really overwhelmed me when
Speaker 1: I saw the amounts just to spread out on my
Speaker 1: back lawn. I would argue, you are an exceptional case,
Speaker 1: if only because you are having to and intentionally eat
Speaker 1: out every single me less opposed to some families will
Speaker 1: be cooking some of those meals. But let's get down
Speaker 1: to the nitty gritty. How do you recommend going about
Speaker 1: minimizing the amount of trash that you are creating through
Speaker 1: these take out boxes and containers. I'm starting to just
Speaker 1: say no, campaign reimagine for and beyond. I think we
Speaker 1: all need to ask for ourselves questions. First of all,
Speaker 1: do we really need naps into tensiles condiments? Oftentimes that
Speaker 1: signals the no for me, right, So I think just
Speaker 1: like these little modest measures certainly add up. There's often
Speaker 1: an option when you're ordering from the delivery apps from
Speaker 1: the restaurants themselves to decline plastic and other utensils if
Speaker 1: you don't want them. I think it's important to ask
Speaker 1: restaurants to what kind of materials they're using. Obviously you
Speaker 1: don't want to do this at prime time, but make
Speaker 1: inquiries and let restaurants know that this matters to you.
Speaker 1: Because only with that sort of feedback and we affect
Speaker 1: change or in restaurants change what they do. You know,
Speaker 1: if enough people get on board and call and ask questions. Obviously, initially,
Speaker 1: of course, it was very difficult for restaurants. A lot
Speaker 1: of places were not prepared for the volume of takeouts
Speaker 1: that they got, right, and they had to scramble to
Speaker 1: get any kind of takeout packaging they could. Well. Now
Speaker 1: seven months into the pandemic and things have calmed down
Speaker 1: somewhat and people have had a little time to investigate
Speaker 1: packaging solutions, and I think there's an ideal time for
Speaker 1: restaurants to change if in fact they want to. I
Speaker 1: think it's also really important to remember to use the
Speaker 1: fewest resources possible. Maybe order several meals that makes for
Speaker 1: a few days, or do a group order with neighbors
Speaker 1: or people who have similar tastes. You. The whole point
Speaker 1: is to get the packaging that is recyclable or impossible,
Speaker 1: and to do it with as little energy as possible,
Speaker 1: and let restaurants know you want that option. Again, Tom,
Speaker 1: before I let you go, I would want to know
Speaker 1: whether the packaging of the food has impacted your discriminating
Speaker 1: palette in any way. Do you notice is there a
Speaker 1: noticeable change. I often times replaced food that I get
Speaker 1: just to kind of recreate that experience that I missed
Speaker 1: of dining in a dining room. So I put barbecue
Speaker 1: on fine china, you know, GNS suits or anything like that.
Speaker 1: But I will try and recreate a bit of a
Speaker 1: civilized normal environment for myself by replating it at home
Speaker 1: and certainly using my own utensils. And by the way,
Speaker 1: it's an all our fuge. Better when it's not eaten
Speaker 1: with plastics or nice spoon. You can make that experience
Speaker 1: for yourself a lot better by just using your own
Speaker 1: plates and utensils. And there you have it. He is
Speaker 1: Tom Sitsima, food critic and now trash critic for The
Speaker 1: Washington Post. I don't think you intended to get that
Speaker 1: added onto your resume, but it's now there. Tom. Thank you, Tom,
Speaker 1: thank you for your time to today. Hey, thank you
Speaker 1: so much. I appreciate it. I'm Oscar Ramirez and this
Speaker 1: has been reopening America. Don't forget that. For today's big
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