Disposables: Is It A Curse To The Environment Or Means To Fix Food Safety?
By: Jason Maxwell
Submitted: 2012-01-20 06:32:50 | Word Count: 537
Man has constantly hurdled with the battle of choosing what is good for him and what is not since time immemorial. Subsequently, in its course, there are those that are inadvertently displaced to make room for progress and development. The price that he has to pay for it is gradually unfolding now before his eyes but with terminality as man chooses progress over other conditions.
One of the by-products of development and progress is the disruption of the balance between the co-existence of human and nature. The disruption of the food cycle and the continuum of life cycle, consequently hamper human efforts to achieve its ultimate goal. Whether intentional or not, such disruptions affect the big decisions that we choose to implement.
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Just to mention a few, the Clean Air Act, the implementation of waste segregation, solid waste management and recycling programs, the use of hybrid cars, are the important steps that both the government and non-government organizations including private sectors and schools are channeling their resources and efforts into. However, the vastness of waste producers is profound and unaccounted for, that a monumental effort to lessen it only results to an insignificant proportion.
Restaurants, fast-food chains, convenience outlets, among others have continued to produce wastes at a rate which is alarming. With their use of disposable dining implements, such businesses continued to be the major contributors to the tons of non-biodegradable wastes generated daily and nobody knows how and when such wastes vanish the face of the earth when they are dumped into landfills or thrown by consumers elsewhere. For example, at Mc Donald's restaurant, with its billions and billions served, is continuously filled with people lining up the counters just to get their usual wrapped burgers and boxed fries meals so probably, they also generate billions and billions of tons of non-recyclable wastes. It is reported that all over the world in urban zones, solid wastes generated yearly reaches about 10 billion tons, of which less than fifty percent is disposed and collected properly, with North America producing about 30 percent of the total waste.
However, the use of disposable dining and food wrappers by fast-food chains, however, have greatly lessen the incidences of food-borne diseases, cross-contamination, and the spread of infectious diseases relative to the use of contaminated dining elements and improper washing and sanitizing procedures. To compensate for their shortcomings, a number of restaurants either use washable dining implements or are involved in recycling activities. In Germany, recycling rate is at 90 percent. On the other hand, Mc Donald's recycles over 17 tons of corrugated cardboard and 13,000 pounds of used cooking oil converted into biodiesel.
Author Resource:-
The use of disposables and washable dining ware has its positive effects as well as downsides. What matters is how each choice is implemented such that it does not pose a threat to our health and nature. With your effort, even a small percentile can result to miracles. Your choice of commercial restaurant supplies will affect the population and nature in general; hence, choose intelligently. A wrong choice of bar and restaurant supplies is a threat to millions and the environment.
