this post was submitted on 16 Feb 2025
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Compostable dishes vs washing dishes (slrpnk.net)
submitted 5 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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Many cafés and fast food places these days provide disposable dishes and cutlery when you're eating in. This used to infuriate me, but it seems to be improving slightly now as the trend has moved towards using compostable dishes instead of plastic ones.

However, it's still waste. It makes me wonder, what is more costly in the long run? Providing customers with compostable items or running hot dishwashers and using soap and water all day to reuse dishes?

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[–] tehWrapper 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

How much water and power does getting all the materials and making a dish washer use?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I don't know, but it's amortised over the life of the machine so surely pretty low. Dishwashers last quite a while

[–] tehWrapper 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Avg is 9 to 12 years

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

One of mine lasted 20 years

[–] tehWrapper 1 points 2 days ago

Guessing the oldest one. 😉