Yep, it's true.I went to Dairy Queen.
I know I shouldn't. I mean first of all: the food. This is not the gorgeous, local, fresh, organic food that I love. Can you say: GMOs and artificial flavouring and modified milk ingredients?? Second of all, like all fast food chains, they make a hideous amount of plastic garbage.
I know all this. And yet inevitably, a few times a summer I end up at my local DQ for a small skor blizzard (with.no.chocolate.sauce).
But this time I had a plan. I had a spoon in my pocket. I was going to REFUSE their single-use plastic spoon. And with a cup that can be composted in Ottawa's green bin program (it can right?), I thought that at least all I was hurting was my stomach.
So I order my blizzard and say clearly "No spoon please". The order gets passed on to the person making the blizzard with the 'no spoon' specification.
I have a bad feeling about this.
Sure enough, after whirling my blizzard in the machine, the DQ dude grabs a plastic spoon, uses it to wipe the rim of my cup, then puts the spoon on the counter (soon to be in the garbage bin) and brings me my blizzard (without a spoon).
I'm sure other people would react to this calmly. I on the other hand, had a mini meltdown.... as I saw him reaching for the spoon, I cried out "nooooooooooo" and dramatically raised my hands in the air (as if this is going to help). At this point other patrons turn to look at me. Hubby gives me a look that equates to a {facepalm}. I put my hands in my hair like maybe I was just fixing my hair. Nothing to see here everyone.....
The worst part is, when he brought the blizzard to me, DQ dude must have assumed I wanted the blizzard to go (why else could I possibly not want a spoon). So he put a plastic lid on my blizzard. That's right folks, for those keeping track...me asking for no spoon actually put MORE plastic into the world. Sigh.
The thing about disposable plastic at restaurants is that it happens in seconds. The second that spoon went in my blizzard they would never be able to use it again. And the second he put the lid on my blizzard, it was already going in the garbage.
I know I should have given the lid back to him (politely) on principle. But sometimes it's too hard being the weirdo that everyone stares at.
2 comments:
I feel for ya. When I occasionally go to a restaurant, I can never finish those three-person servings they call a meal, so I bring my own take home containers. I never ask the server to put the leftovers in them though, because 1) they look at me like I'm a freak, and 2), I have both food and container, so why bother?
This isn't a problem when it's just DH and I, because he's accepted that I'm a quiet eco-nazi and has learned that there's much more marital happines to be had if he just goes along with it. When we go out with friends though, I've learned to brace myself for the sidelong looks. ;)
Thanks TechChik! :-)
You got me thinking...while it's nice to know that lots of us out there are avoiding disposable stuff at restaurants (esp. plastic disposables) individually, wouldn't it be cool to get a group together and do a plastic free dinner? As in show up at a restaurant as a group and when either making the reservation or sitting down say 'we don't want any disposables with our meal'. Then we all pull out our - own chopsticks, glass straws, cloth napkins, and take away containers as required and have a great meal. Strength in numbers! :)
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