How much are disposable plates and cups a part of your home life?

Not at all.

Not one bit. I suppose that I have some, somewhere (I sort of know where they might be stored, but I never go there). I seldom even use paper napkins, although I do use paper towels frequently while I microwave.

They aren’t. I want to eliminate the use of paper napkins, but I don’t think my parents would budge on that one. When I move out, I plan on using cloth napkins and just washing them.

They are a blight. I would never use them, because they are wasteful for no reason.

@jca Am I imagining things, or did you ask a similar question about this kind of recently? Or maybe it was someone else.

We use paper plates most of the time, but regular cups, bowls, and silverware. The paper plates are just a habit, really. We used them at our last house when we had roommates because we didn’t have a dishwasher and that was 4 less plates to wash (laziness, really), and it just stuck. It keeps me from having to run the dishwasher more than once a week, though.

They don’t feature at all. I am a China Girl all the way.

One plastic cup.

I used to occasionally drop to the floor one of the six or seven pills I take at night, or the four or five I take in the mourning.

My dog got a hold of a dropped pill and needed to have vomiting induced and charcoal fed to her. I had a supply of plastic cups I never use, so I now put all the pills in the cup over the sink instead of just laying them on the counter, where they occasionally rolled off.

This was a first for me, dog into pills that is, so I will make it a last, I hope, with the only disposable item in use in my house.

I use some paper plates and recycle them as cat food plates. No paper cups at all.
I use them for salads, snacks etc. then rinse them, let them dry and store them in a laundry basket in my laundry room where I feed my cats their canned food on them.

I don’t use them at all, but I’m hosting a gathering for Thanksgiving this year. I’ve already purchased paper products to use for that occasion.

My wife loves paper plates. I can’t stand them.
If she pulls them out, I insist on the real stuff, and offer to do the dishes after. (I do the dishes half the time, anyway).

Too much! We tend to use paper plates instead of our actual plates for the convenience when it comes to washing the dishes. We don’t have a dishwasher (installed) and we go through way too many plates in one day. We don’t use any other paper dishware/silverware, just the plates.

We went out and bought a dishwasher a few weeks ago and now we are waiting for the plumber to come help us with the water lines to get it hooked up. As soon as it’s in place, the paper plates are going away.

We use them for quick breakfast and snacks.

Never use anything that is disposable unless we get take out food. But never for something prepared here at home.

I used to use dishes all the time when I was at a place where I needed to cook. Now that I get food on a plan, I use very sparingly a set of paper plates that I have in my room. I should’ve bought plastic. At least you can wash plastic, right?

Only the classic red plastic cups for parties.

Only when moving, when things are packed and we are exhausted. Never Styrofoam, though. And I’ll only buy bottled water in a pinch, when there’s no source available to fill my own bottle.

No, but that doesn’t mean this is a classy joint or anything. I drink wine out of coffee mugs and some of my plates are old TV dinner trays.

We use them for picnics only.

Never. I use cloth napkins as well.

Never. I don’t have a problem with washing plates. Maybe if we had kids, and they had parties, but we don’t.

Very rarely. Paper towels for some spills and messy meals, but otherwise, no.

Not at all. The last time we used them at home was about 20 years ago when my daughter, who was then 4, had a birthday party.

Many people prefer disposable plates and cups because it makes life easier after dinner but the waste is incredible! People don’t realize the damage it causes to the environment!I use disposable plates and utensils only for kids parties or picnics.

Practically never. In the past, as students, with lots of unexpected guests showing up at parties…

Your friend who uses only disposable plates, cups and utensils in her house is unnecessarily contributing to the destruction of our planet with its limited resources. In my opinion, the disposable stuff should cost at least 10 times as much, because we finally have to understand that overusing limited resources such as the atmosphere or the materials in the earth and on the earth are not free. We need usage fees. We need fully loaded costs.

I live alone and use disposable paper bowls for cat food, reusable plastic bowls and plates for most of my meals, and mostly dish towels rather than paper ones.

I hardly use plastic straws or paper napkins – disposable cups and plates I would never use. Possibly for (outdoor) parties. I would feel guilty thinking about the environment.

I use paper cups at work for my coffee. I will use one cup for a few days in a row. I stir the coffee with a straw or plastic utensil, but I will reuse that, also. I will also take a bunch of McDonald’s stirrers or use stirrers from Dunkin Donuts, and I will always reuse.

At home, if I use a paper towel in the kitchen to dry my hands, I will usually reuse it. I feel if it was just used to dry clean hands, then why throw it out, since it’s still clean, just damp. At the very least I will use it to dry a wet counter or pick up cat food off a floor or something, and then it’s definitely dirty and will be thrown away, of course.

@glacial: I don’t believe I asked a similar question recently. If a similar question was asked by me or anyone else, it would have come up when I asked it. I have not asked much of anything recently as my old computer was broken. That’s why I haven’t commented on much recently, either. I’ve been surfing and stalking LOL. If you want to see recent questions asked by me, it’s in my profile/account.

Only for barbecues if I am having a crowd. I have a friend who uses them a lot too and I think that’s very weird.

My ex was a huge paper plate fellow. I went alone with it for years, then it hit me how incredibly wasteful they are. I went out and bought Tupperware plates and cups for the kids, china for the grown ups, and haven’t looked back. It has been about ten years and now I cannot stand eating off paper plates.

Not even for camping, almost never. How lazy can someone get?

@jca LOL, it wasn’t meant to be an accusation, the question just jogged a memory. :)

It all comes down to the old ” pick your poison” mantra.
Use some paper products and save water or wash dishes and save a tree.
I am not militant about anything, middle of the road here and I certainly have spent a lifetime making up for the few dozen paper plates I use on occasion in a million other ways such as rescuing farm animals, not using pesticides on my rural properties, creating havens for wildlife, feeding the birds, etc. etc.
Not using a few paper products does not elevate anyone to some superior status.

None. We simply do not use them as a family. My soap making, however, is a different story. I use disposable cups as forms for my loofah soaps. I may only use about 30 or 40 of them every Christmas for the soaps I make for the gift-giving season. That is the extent of it.

Very seldom, though it would be easier. I do have a basket full of plastic forks and spoons that we sometimes use.

<hanging head in shame>

A constant in my house. I had three children in the span of four years, and have fibromyalgia. Paper plates were damn near necessary under those conditions. Not so necessary for the same reasons now that the kids are older, but I still use them frequently…I only own 6 ‘real’ plates. When five people are here, that doesn’t make it through the day. Plus I hate to dirty a plate for a little snack, but hate to not use a plate and get crumbs everywhere. We also use the red plastic cups for specific things, but they are not used as often. We do use real silverware, though.

I once read a study that compared the environmental damage done by using a paper plate vs. washing a real plate in the dishwasher. Paper came out ahead! (This was a long time ago, so no link to back up my claim, sorry.)

@glacial: I didn’t take it as an accusation. It’s all good!

@augustlan: I bet regular paper plates don’t do much to the environment, but I wonder if the study was also referring to the paper plates that have that plastic-y coating on them. Regular paper plates don’t hold much more than toast! When I buy disposable stuff for work parties and stuff, Styrofoam is way cheaper and holds wet foods better, so that’s what I usually get, but I know it’s awful for the environment.

You’re probably right, @jca, and of course I use the ‘heavy-duty’ kind of paper plates. I can’t stand Styrofoam (who knew that should be capitalized??), so I’m doing more damage than regular paper, but less than foam, I guess.

These (great for nice occasions; I was just at a wedding that used them) and these (way more economical) are some good options if disposable plates are necessary.

@wildpotato Those are really neat, but…then I saw the price!
$80 for 100 fiber plates. I don’t think so.

@Coloma that is why I finally gave up disposables! I would like to say it was some grand attempt to save the planet, but it was actually a grand attempt to save money.

@LilCosmo Yes, but I sure do love not washing gross cat food bowls. haha

Washing dishes is painful for me. I will use paper plates which I reuse when they are not soiled to reduce the need for dishwashing. Since paper is biodegradable and a renewable resource, I will use them sparingly. I avoid foam plates because they are environmentally unacceptable.
I avoid plastic disposable items except for picnics.

I still have a bunch of divided plates left over from our potluck wedding celebration… so we use those occasionally when we have people over (i.e. more people at our house than we have dishes for).

I buy plates/cups/napkins for my kids birthday parties. I think we just finished the set I bought for my son’s birthday 3 years ago.

@Cupcake I still have paper cups left from my sons’ bar mitizvahs which were about 20 years ago!

Never use any disposable plates or napkins or utensils. In my area, that would not be polite.