Travel Utensils; Or: How I Beat the Plastic Spoon.
By Karina | July 25, 2007
Last Monday I was in NYC for a concert at Central Park. Now, because I live and work in NJ, for me to get to Central Park for a concert I have to leave work at 4 to drive home and park my car and then take the train into Manhattan. It’s a piece of cake, but it doesn’t usually leave me any time for a thoughtful and nutritious dinner.
So last week, I ducked into a deli near 68th street and tried to pick up some little stuff to eat. I didn’t want a sandwich or bagel, so I looked through the dairy case. The yogurt looked really good. And then I remembered: I didn’t have a spoon in my handbag.
This is where I was forced to make a tiny choice. Would I take a plastic spoon and eat tasty yogurt and keep the packaging to bring home and recycle it? or would I get two non-string cheese sticks, a bag of jalapeño potato chips, and a carton of chocolate milk instead? I made the second choice. I had a ridiculous (but delicious) dinner, and it was all because I just didn’t want to take a plastic spoon. I wish I could say that this was based on sound environmental reckoning and analysis, but it wasn’t. I just Didn’t. Want. A. Spoon. I can probably recycle the spoon at home. The yogurt container I can definately recycle. The plastic that the cheese was wrapped in (as well as the potato chip bag and the milk carton) all went straight in the garbage. But! I Just. Don’t. Want. Plastic. Spoons.
As nearly as I can tell, there is not a lot of logic behind this choice. I think I am stubborn about
plastic spoons because I know I can do better. I know I can bring a spoon with me wherever I go. I carry a handbag, for pete’s sake! So there should be no reason for me to have to take a plastic spoon.
And I will confess: my stubbornness at the deli may have been spurred on by my recent purchase of the super-cool and very cute bamboo spork by bambu. [[source of spork re:Modern]] It just hadn’t arrived yet! And so in my commitment to cute and renewable cutlery, I had cheese, potato chips, and chocolate milk for dinner.
[[source and additional links for travel utensils from treehugger]]
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Could one fashion the lid into a make-do yogurt scooper? Although I’m imagining the dirty brand jalepeno chips and those are quite satisying!
smarty! fashioning my foil yogurt lid would have been a real design coup, macquyver style. I’ll have to remember that in a pinch!
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[…] I mean Totally Excited. I’ve been trying to carry around a smaller handbag and while my spork and cloth napkin (or hanky) fit into a small purse, I end up bringing along a second tote bag to […]
Call Me “Mac”. Or Richard Dean Anderson. I had done this crudely a few times prior but ths time I set out to make a foil spoon…and it worked. Quite well for a first attempt, I might add. I’ll have to post the plans since I couldn’t find them anywhere else…the closest I came was Stacey’s comment on Karina’s blog.
I’d love to see your plans, Matt! we would be glad to post them here if you’d like!
Green tea…
Hi - just wanted to say good design and blog - cu Frank…
[…] Pack real, instead of plastic, cutlery–or consider a bamboo spork […]