>Hi All,
>I'm doing a Permaculture neighborhood picnic this July and am looking
>for a service organization that provides silverware (and reuses by
>washing)
>We will have about 150 people. Any suggestions greatly appreciated
>John
Hi John,
I think this is a great general question for events large and small.
I don't have access to enough (though I have a small collection I
donated to my small church).
"Compostable disposables" seem very problematic to me because they are
a. expensive
b. there's a a lot of "embodied energy" in them
c. they often end up in the trash because
--they look like plastic AND
--they only break down with optimal composting such
as in "industrial" compost settings
Possible short-term solutions:
some churches have large numbers of flatware for "church suppers."
you can rent flatware
Long-term solutions
1) many groups could each accumulate their own sets of
mismatched dishes and flatware, and find access to an efficient
dishwasher to clean them)
2) An idea I saw in action at a "Sustainablity Festival:"
A volunteer-based group raised funds by providing reusable dishes to
food vendors at that fair and other public events. They had a
collection of dishes, lots of plastic wash basins, dish racks, drain
boards, and cloth towels. They were PART of this fair, with on-site
dish-washing (by hand, assembly line, with drought-friendly water
efficiency). They were having lots of fun while demonstrating an
alternative to disposable consumables, and raising money for their
favorite cause (I think it was a school). This was a HUGE fair, with
perhaps a dozen or more food vendors, all using this service.
I know the major caveat in NYS is likely to be Health Dept.
Regulations, so here we might need to have larger quantities of
dishes, and (if the event wasn't near a serious dishwasher/s)
cooperating commercial kitchens that would run the dishes through
their dishwashers during and/or afterwards. (Otherwise, we might be
required to put the dishes through a chlorine rinse, which has its
own sets of problems).
Hand and/or machine washing reusable dishes. Another case where
"going back to the old ways" could be a major step forward . . .
Margaret
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