[SustainableTompkins] silverware for picnic

[Margaret McCasland]

>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