One thing I don't get though is paper plates, disposable cups and cutlery.......is it really common for people to use them at home? I actually find the idea of using them in a domestic setting quite strange, and I don't think I can even remember the last time I used a paper plate or disposable cup at someone's house.
Years and years ago, before my dad retired, he’d bring home leftover (unused) plastic cups, plastic plates, and utensils from work (he worked for a soft drinks bottling company, and they had a warehouse full of that stuff for events they’d supply drinks to).
My mom loved that: “Oh, we’ll start using these, and it’ll cut my dish-washing in half!”
The frugal woman my mom was, though, it didn’t take long before she was washing and reusing all the plastic stuff!
We use paper plates for certain things - if we’re having a piece of toast for a snack, or some snack crisps/chips, or even a sandwich for lunch.
About the only hot thing I’d use a paper place for is pizza, and that’s just tradition, as a lot of old-school pizza places always served pizza on a piece of wax paper on a paper plate - sort of like if you want the full experience of a fish-n-chip takeaway at home, you might wrap it in paper, just for the nostalgia.
The main reason, I’m guessing, that most people would use them for is that it saves on washing up. We don’t use them enough to claim that practically, though I think psychologically, I have that thought in my mind.
Also, all of the things I listed are “quick” foods, in a sense; apart from pizza, nothing cooked and something just thrown together, more snack than meal, so it just feels more…appropriate. If I’m going to have a serving of little pretzel twists while watching TV, putting those on a proper plate would feel like overkill, sort of like firing up the family jet to go to the grocery store 15 minutes away.
I think there’s also some level of satisfaction with it being so low-effort and almost stealthy - grab a paper plate, make a PBJ, use the plate to carry it into the living room, eat the sandwich, toss the plate, and it’s like you were never even in the kitchen to mess things up.
Now I feel like I need to write a book on the psychology of paper plates!
If you have a dishwasher then using a proper plate doesn't really create any more washing up - most of the time people don't run their dishwasher totally full anyway. I use soup bowl or mixing bowl to weigh out ingredients, toast or a sandwich goes on a proper plate (or maybe just on the chopping board if I'm eating on the go), and snacks go either in a little dish or on a tea plate. If we get fish and chips from the takeaway they are taken out of the wrappers and eaten off plates. We don't even use disposable items when we're camping.