Every day,
tens of thousands of people dump on America without saying a word. They open
their mouths, it’s true. But that is for
the food consumed off polystyrene plates, often in bilious amounts, using
plastic knives and forks, or for the cold or hot drinks guzzled from
polystyrene cups.
There’s no more
alarming way to see this than to drive across America, which we did a little
while ago. In grand hotels and pit-stop motels polystyrene is king. And even
though some forms of this ubiquitous, environmentally iniquitous, product are recyclable
it mostly goes into the trash, destined for landfill.
The hotel
and motel owners (and restaurateurs) of America need only take a peek at Trip
Advisor or elsewhere on the Internet to sense the cry for change:
o
‘Are
you serious – polystyrene plates and plastic cutlery at breakfast?!’
o
‘Polystyrene
and plastic cutlery set the standard.’
o
‘Everything in the dining room was
disposable … Nothing cheapens a meal quite so much as using disposable plates
and cutlery.’
Billy Connolly
joined in the lament against ‘polystyrene plates and plastic cutlery’ writing of
his road trip along the famous Route 66.
So what or
who’s to blame? Is the food so bad it doesn’t matter what it’s served on? Have the
dishwashers of America, threatened with deportation by Donald Trump, gone to
ground? Does the fault lie more with Saudi Arabia? Battling Russia and Iran it’s
pushed oil prices to record lows. Cheap oil equals cheaper plastic. Why clean
up when you can throw away?
No matter
how blame is apportioned it's a phenomenon that’s rubbishing America.
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