<p>This is gonna be my first year in college and since I’m dorming I want to know what to buy when concerning utensils and food. What do you suggest is more convenient and better for my wallet? Disposable plates and utensils or regular plates and bowls. What do you use in your dorms?</p>
<p>definitely not disposable.</p>
<p>that creates more trash, is wasteful, and truly irresponsible.</p>
<p>furthermore, it feels less like home, and more like you’re in somewhere temporary.</p>
<p>also, plastic tastes bad and isn’t very sturdy.</p>
<p>i use all real utensils/bowls/plates when i cook for myself or a group or when one of my friends cooks for a group … and so do about half of my friends. the other half don’t really do enough eating in to invest/bring cross-country.</p>
<p>Regular stuff all the way. it’ll remind you of home, it tastes better, it works better, and it’s better for the environment.</p>
<p>Because I lived in a dorm without a sink in my room, I used disposable silverware. Otherwise, I’d have to go down four floors to use the community sink or use the dirty community bathroom sink. It was just easier and saved a lot of time for me. </p>
<p>Bowls and plates and cups I used regular, but I think I’m switching to disposable cups this year for the same reason.</p>
<p>If you use plastic, you can recycle…so I don’t think it’s generally wasteful.</p>
<p>I’ve decided to go disposable, because I don’t have a sink in my room, and I don’t think washing my dishes in the bathroom is either sanitary or appreciated. That, and I don’t plan on having to many meals in my dorm that would require the use of real dishware.</p>
<p>The real stuff will last longer, be cheaper in the long run, but I don’t think they’re as convenient. However, if you plan on eating in your dorm a lot though, then go for it; just make sure you wash them right away.</p>
<p>I would go disposable just because it was a lot more convenient for me. Sure, the trash piles up, but I would rather take out the trash after every few meals rather than wash the dishes after every meal. However I would keep some proper silverware there just in case you run out or something.</p>
<p>You can get really cheap real utensils at Walmart and places, and it’s really not that bad to wash things in the bathroom sink (you don’t have to let your stuff TOUCH the dirty sink…plus communal bathrooms are actually cleaned everyday, unlike personal bathrooms, so in general they’re not really dirty)</p>
<p>Also some people choose to “borrow” utensils and things from the dining hall haha</p>
<p>If you live anywhere close to a sink of some sort (i.e. a bathroom), you should bring your own plates and silverware just because it does reduce the amount of waste that you will generate. Think about it: one plate, one fork, and one knife times the number of days that you’ll be eating in one year.</p>
<p>There was a sink on my floor. So I had reusable stuff. I think disposable is very wasteful. </p>
<p>I rarely ate in my dorm room, but if I did I would just go rinse my stuff out with really hot water.</p>
<p>@ whohuh</p>
<p>Get plastic utensils, styrofoam (hard or soft) plates and cups, paper towel w/ towel holder (I prefer the sturdier iron ones), napkins, adjustable air fresheners, and boxes of tissue. You will need these if you decide to bring back a carry-out meal to your dorm, especially if it doesn’t have a kitchen on your floor.</p>
<p>If you’re going to go disposable at least get paper plates, not styrofoam, which never biodegrades…</p>
<p>Correction: I meant the paper plates (I had the hard ones on my mind but couldn’t think if they were made out of paper)</p>
<p>I’m bringing “real” plates/cups/bowls/cutlery with me, because my suite has a kitchen and I know I’ll be doing at least some cooking (especially since I don’t have class on Fridays and the dining hall has weird hours on the weekend).</p>
<p>Just “borrow” a set of silverware from the cafeteria on the first day, and return it on the last day. Problem solved.</p>
<p>porcelain things aren’t very expensive…</p>
<p>“Just “borrow” a set of silverware from the cafeteria on the first day, and return it on the last day. Problem solved.”</p>
<p>Or continuously borrow and return, thus never having to wash…</p>
<p>I’ve used disposable in the past because it’s convenient (I don’t end up having a stack of dishes that I don’t clean for two weeks…), but I think I’m going non-disposable next year for environmental reasons. Of course, that’s assuming that in the first two months I don’t cause some kind of health hazard from uncleaned dishes…Come on, Christine (and other people), it takes like 5 minutes to wash dishes for one person…</p>
<p>DISPOSABLE. I brought real stuff my freshman year, and it sucked. sucked sucked sucked. I don’t know about you, but washing my dishes in the bathroom really just grossed me out. Sophomore year I lived in a set up that had the sinks somewhat removed from the bathroom, and we used real plates and utensils and washed them and it was fine. But if you are living in dorm style, recyclable disposable stuff is the best. Especially when you are eating in the middle of the night while studying and the very last thing you want to do is go wash the bowl you just ate easy mac out of.</p>
<p>i think the main problem there is you were eating easy mac - that’s gross. </p>
<p>haha.</p>
<p>but seriously … 1. you public bathrooms are probably cleaner than most private kitchens and bathrooms.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>your dorm will have a kitchen not too far from you. it won’t kill you to walk the MAX 3 minutes to a kitchen and wash your own stuff.</p></li>
<li><p>whether or not you can recycle depends heavily on where you college is located - not every state/city/county has the facilities to recycle the plastic in plastic utensils, and you can’t recycle the plates, though chances are if they’re not plastic coated you can compost them … but higher chances are you don’t have a compost facility in your dorm.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>While I realize that a majority of people will probably go the disposable route because it’s nominally “easier” (though pricier and more wasteful) than bringing a set from home or “borrowing” a set from your friendly dining hall, it makes eating less pleasurable, and really does escalate your trash production.</p>
<p>i have to disagree with just one sentence in your post rightnotleft:
eating was definitely just as or more enjoyable knowing i didn’t need to wash dishes after.
yeah, i was lazy freshman year, so what. haha</p>
<p>I think that the best question here would be if you are actually going to wash your dishes. I have heard (and encountered a few) many horror stories about roommates that don’t wash their dishes, which is absolutely disguisting. If you think you will just let dishes sit there, get disposable. Nobody wants a bug problem because you won’t wash your dishes.</p>
<p>I bought a plate, bowl, cup, mug, fork, knife, and spoon- all very nice and only come to $20 together. I would go with non-disposable, as it makes things more civilized and may end up being cheaper than plastic/paper.</p>