
The $0.006 Object in a Sushi Container - ajay-d
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/29/business/plastic-sushi-grass-thing.html
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darkpuma
When did the venerable New York Times turn into a comic book?

Anyway, far from being an "important job" this is an example of inexcusable
waste. Casually using throw-away plastic junk for something as pointless as
"separating the flavors", when I'm just going to shove both of those things
into my mouth anyway without bothering to rinse out my mouth and cleanse my
palate with bland crackers, is beyond the pale. With our precarious global
environmental situation, we should be criticizing not apologizing for
frivolous waste like this.

And for this matter, stop giving me free plastic forks or chopsticks every
time. I own my own reusable stainless steel utensils.

~~~
r00fus
I really wish delivery services like DoorDash would present UI to opt out of
cutlery and condiments (preferably as a default).

When I order a dinner for delivery to my home, I'm likely going to use my own
plates/knives. If I'm ordering via phone or pickup, I can decline the default
forks/chopsticks but using the UI it's nto possible without a "comment" and
some restaurants don't even read that.

Yes there's already waste in the packaging but often that's compostable these
days.

~~~
jimmaswell
Why would you rather do dishes than use free plastic cutlery/containers?

~~~
darkpuma
Why would you rather pollute the environment with more thrown away plastic
crap than spend 20 seconds by a sink to clean a fork? Even if you recycle the
plastic fork (few people bother to, since the fork is already associated with
food waste they throw it into the trash along with the food waste) the energy
cost of recycling that plastic is still inexcusable when you could have
avoided the entire thing by simply owning your own fork.

~~~
tracker1
Plastic is largely a byproduct from oil/gas processing... as long as we're
using as much oil/gas as we do, plastic usage (even disposable) is already
additional use out of the system. If it weren't composite plastic, it would be
landfill sludge anyway.

Now, reducing the consumption of oil/gas could reduce plastic as a byproduct
and increase costs in which case the market would self-correct.

~~~
darkpuma
If that's the direction you want to approach the situation from, then consider
that by allowing the byproducts to be commercialized you are in effect
subsidizing the oil and gas, and thereby encouraging their continued use.

You should also consider the unique harm plastic waste _in particular_ does to
wildlife.

~~~
tracker1
I'm not saying it isn't a problem... the larger issue of littering in general,
and wildlife preservation are huge to me. We have very well managed waste
disposal sites, and do a lot of subsidizing recycling efforts.

My point was that if you aren't littering, then the net cost to the
environment isn't such a huge thing. I'm also not a fan of government
subsidies in general. Your point really isn't a subsidy, it's a means of
greater use, which is generally considered a good thing. Unless you'd rather
have more environmental waste that isn't used for any secondary purpose.

I'd love to see more/better efforts with regards to wildlife conservation, not
littering etc. I like to do road trips while on vacation. Seeing the shear
amount of litter on roadways, in the mountains and everywhere but a proper
trashcan that will get disposed of reasonably is upsetting. Frankly, I think
that getting society as a whole to respect their environment and other
people's property (littering and vandalism) would go further to improving
things than not.

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drefanzor
I always wondered about why that was put there, and considered it a waste; now
I know otherwise. Good information here, thanks.

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swolchok
Mods: please consider addressing the curiosity gap in the title by something
like s/Object/Plastic Sushi Grass/ .

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brucemoose
To the people complaining about the format, does it make more sense if you
look at it in the context of a social media story? It looks weird as images
presented vertically on the New York times website. But this would be right at
home in an instagram feed.

I personally appreciate the hand drawn look and artwork, but supplementing
that with a text version would be an improvement for many reasons.

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uranusjr
It’s バラン, not バラソ. Surely the New York Times is capable of finding someone who
actually reads Japanese to proofread their work?

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peter_retief
I am sure this article is sardonic or maybe a word that I dont know yet,
besides disturbing that is :)

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Udik
How does that tiny sheet of plastic in a plastic box separate the smell of
fish from the rice when, in sushi, the fish is stuck either right above or
inside the rice itself?

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petre
I'd like that with bamboo leaves thank you.

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civilian
"traditional health benefits" means "bullshit health benefits", right?

~~~
btashton
Normally I would agree, but I think they were referring to "bamboo kun" which
is how the bamboo plant fights off fungi and was thought to provide some
antimicrobial properties, although at least in textiles seems to be
ineffective [0]

[0]
[https://bioresources.cnr.ncsu.edu/BioRes_08/BioRes_08_4_6501...](https://bioresources.cnr.ncsu.edu/BioRes_08/BioRes_08_4_6501_Xi_Qin_Antibacterial_Perform_Natural_Bamboo_Fiber_4310.pdf)

~~~
darkpuma
If your sushi is sitting around long enough to start molding, you've got some
logistics issues to resolve.

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hgq
I hope this crap of having drawings instead of actual text never catches on.

~~~
bahador
The author is an artist/illustrator. That is her medium.
[http://wendymacnaughton.com/](http://wendymacnaughton.com/)

~~~
basil-rash
I don't think we should tell artists what they can/can't do, but I do think it
would be reasonable for the New York Times to enforce that all content they
host is made as accessible as reasonably possible, for some definition of
that.

This could be made much more accessible by just including appropriate
captions, and doing so would benefit a large part of the community.

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drusepth
This literally gave me a headache to read. I assume they made the article look
like a 6 year old drew/wrote it because they thought it wouldn't be long
enough (page-wise) without 10000pt font?

I wish there were a day to send feedback to the NYT saying "please do not do
this again".

~~~
bgun
Reading handwriting gives you a headache?

~~~
pacoWebConsult
Reading bubbly, squiggly cursive writing on a white background when nearly
everything I use is black basically did give me a headache. Its an
accessibility nightmare too.

