The True Impact Of Plastic Cutlery

Plastic cutlery may seem cheap and convenient, although in reality it&#;s anything but. As individuals and a society, we pay a tremendous &#; and often hidden &#; price for using plastic so freely.

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Here&#;s a jaw-dropping statistic: how long do you think it takes plastic cutlery to decompose or break down? The answer is 200 years, according to estimates that show that plastic cutlery will take over two centuries to decompose in optimum conditions &#; buried in a landfill however, they may never break down!

The thing is, plastic is so convenient, so cheap, and so easy. As a society, we rely on plastic like disposable cutlery, for its convenience. Yet we don&#;t always know the terrible price we all pay for the seeming advantages that plastic offers. The price in terms of waste, in terms of pollution, in terms of health issues.

&#;You would come with a little carry case, and it would be your own personal knife and spoon,&#; says Sarah Coffin, who curated the exhibit Feeding Desire: Design and the Tools of the Table, - at the Cooper Hewitt design museum in New York.

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Toting your own eating implements was not only a logistical must&#;none were usually provided&#;but also helped avoid illness. &#;If you come with your own,&#; explains Coffin, &#;you don't have to worry about someone else's germs in your soup.&#; What you ate with, she said, was also a status symbol of sorts. &#;It was a little like a pocket watch.&#;

National Geographic is committed to reducing plastics pollution. Learn more about our non-profit activities at natgeo.org/plastics . Learn what you can do to reduce your own single-use plastics, and take your pledge.

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Cutlery for the masses was commonly made of wood, stone, or shells. More ornate sets could be made of gold or ivory, or even be collapsible for traveling light. By the early s sleek and rust-resistant stainless steel started to make an appearance. By World War II, an even newer material had worked its way into the cutlery mix: plastic.

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&#;Disposable kings&#;

At first, plastic cutlery was considered reusable. Chris Witmore, a professor in archaeology and classics at Texas Tech University, remembers his grandmother washing her plastic tableware. But as the post-war economy boomed, the frugal habits instilled by the Great Depression and an agrarian history faded.

&#;After the mid-twentieth century overabundance comes to define how the majority live,&#; says Whitmore. That, he says, gave rise to a &#;throw-away culture.&#;

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