Fast food utensils - before plastic

[Stephen Tashiro]

There are various news stories about bans on "single use" plastic utensils and straws. That makes me try to remember what utensils came with fast food when I was a kid. I remember wax paper straws. I'm tempted to say that there were wooden knives, forks, and spoons because this seems logical. However, I can't honestly say I remember them. Were they ever common? Or was it assumed that people would not need utensils? (I remember the days when hamburgers were more stoutly constructed. It was safe to assume you'd only need your hands.)

[Curt Harms]

I don't remember a time when plastic wasn't common. I wonder if we'll see more biodegradable plastic-like materials going forward.

[Lee Schierer]

There were little flat wooden spoons when you got individual containers of ice cream.

[Jim Becker]

A lot of "fast food" didn't even exist "back in the day" and the menus were not as diverse earlier on...no real need for "utensils" and as someone noted, straws may have been the waxed paper type. Today, there's a lot more things like salads and other items that are no longer "finger food", so more use of plastic utensils. And even when you can eat most of something with your hands (think Taco Bell), there's that stuff that drops out that you don't want to waste. So you grab a plastic spork from the bin and clean up every last drop.


There's some validity to the concerns about these plastic based products, both in sheer volume as well as the damage they bring to the environment and biosphere. We don't have to "eliminate" some of these things so much as we need to change our usage patterns and also adopt newer bio-degradable materials to make them. It can be done. But do we want to?

[Bill Dufour]

Chopsticks used to be a single piece of wood that you split apart on a scored line to split into two separate pieces.
Bill D

[Pat Barry]

I believe it was common for folks to carry their own spork with them to deal with this situation.

[John K Jordan]

When I was a kid my family never traveled without knives, forks and spoons from the kitchen, a cutting board, and food and drink in a cooler. Of course, there was no such thing as fast food and we didn't go to restaurants so I have no idea if takeout existed. (Imagine taking seven kids to a restaurant!) We would stop at a grocery store for bread and cheese and such if needed. I still travel like that at times since I hate to spend the ridiculous amounts for junky food.

JKJ

[Bob Turkovich]

I can't remember what we used for utensils before plastic but I know what may replace it.

Corn starch.

Don't laugh. My environmental-friendly local golf course has been using corn starch tees for years. (They also used goats for addressing evasive species plants but that's another story.) They look and feel like plastic but are bio-degradable. They're preferred over wood as they don't damage mower blades.

[Roger Nair]

As I remember the fifties before McDonalds and such, whether carry out or drive-in, it was all finger food fries, hamburgers, wieners and chicken in a basket. If you went inside and sat down, the culinary world opened up and you ate biscuits and gravy, fries and gravy and mashed potatoes and gravy on thick white plates with stainless utensils in hand.

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

I remember well the little flat wooden "spoons" that came with small cups of ice cream. I just saw them recently somewhere, individually wrapped in paper and in a long roll. A stand at a nearby farmer's market sells large cups of mushrooms simmered in butter. Each cup comes with a wooden thing that resembles a large toothpick to skewer the mushrooms and eat them.

Back in the 1960's fast food was indeed all finger food. And of course the original ice cream cone is a sort of edible container that replaced bowls and dishes. There were tiny little stamped metal spoons 125 yrs ago that were given with ice cream in a dish. Frankly, other than hot dogs, hamburgers, fries, funnel cake and ice cream, I don't remember any other fast food. Hot dog buns were the original fast food container. Before that, vendors provided a pair of clean gloves to eat a sausage/wurst. One vendor got tired of folks walking off with the gloves, so he developed the bun.

My wife thinks that broccoli cheese soup served in a small hollowed out loaf of bread is the cat's meow. Ever winter fair and carnival, I know what she will be eating.

[Dennis Peacock]

I love a good broccoli and cheese soup!

[Andrew Joiner]

I remember well the little flat wooden "spoons" that came with small cups of ice cream.

There coming back and affordable. We're ordering some for a yearly banquet we have.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071CTQYJN...753643755&th=1

[roger wiegand]

"Soon, where Toontown once stood will be a string of gas stations, inexpensive motels, restaurants that serve rapidly prepared food. Tire salons, automobile dealerships and wonderful, wonderful billboards reaching as far as the eye can see. My God, it'll be beautiful."

Yup, no rapidly prepared food when I was very young. My family was in the picnic/catering business and we used paper straws in our returnable pop bottles and wooden sporks and flat spoons on occasion. Most foods were wrapped in a tissue and eaten out of hand. If you went to a restaurant you sat down and ate with metal utensils.

I look forward to the demise of much of our throwaway plastics, especially unnecessary packaging. Since plastic bags got banned I can now get a paper bag that doesn't rip and leave my purchases trailed across the parking lot at the Home Depot. Now that's progress!

[Steve Rozmiarek]

I can't remember what we used for utensils before plastic but I know what may replace it.

Corn starch.

Don't laugh. My environmental-friendly local golf course has been using corn starch tees for years. (They also used goats for addressing evasive species plants but that's another story.) They look and feel like plastic but are bio-degradable. They're preferred over wood as they don't damage mower blades.

So the environmentalists opted to replace a naturally biodegradable wood product with processed bi-product of Monsanto's GMO corn??? That's kinda funny! Seriously though, corn starch products do have merit for some things.

[Jim Koepke]

So the environmentalists opted to replace a naturally biodegradable wood product with processed bi-product of Monsanto's GMO corn??? That's kinda funny! Seriously though, corn starch products do have merit for some things.

The little wooden spoons and forks may take years to biodegrade. A corn starch spoon would likely biodegrade much quicker.

Making wooden utensils likely takes more resources and energy than popping corn starch out of a mold.

When it comes down to it, which is cheaper to make? That is the one that will be used by the fast food industry.

jtk