<p>Seole:</p>
<p>I bought some plastic glasses for a party, thinking to throw them away afterwards. Then my recycling instincts kicked in; I’m still washing and rewashing those plastic glasses. Maybe at the end of the year (I’m assuming we’re talking school year), you can donate a new set of plastic cups to your group. It will be appreciated. Chucking away what looks to them perfectly serviceable cups would seem wasteful.</p>
<p>seole. it’s not a cliche once you’ve breathed life into it,…as you have.</p>
<p>KIds can get community college credits and have the school district pay for it in Washington state- it is called Running start
Pell grants are also available for very low income students as well as work study jobs
We have know those who have lots of money and who are very consumer conscious and know those who are lower income and rely on teh special programs for low income families along with under the table income to get by
You can’t really tell how much money somebody has by where they go to school or what they wear except at the extreme ends.</p>
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<p>I agree to some extent but I think I’ve come up with a solution. </p>
<p>I checked out the cups today to see what I thought and made the mistake of smelling one. They don’t always use soap to rinse the cups, so all of them are quite tea-stained and many of them are cracked or have bite marks on the edges (there are a couple of styrofoam cups); that could be fine, but the fact that they smell bothers me. I’ve been in favor of keeping and reusing disposable plastic cups ever since I realized people here did that–it’s very practical and resourceful, so it’s weird to see wealthier classmates throwing them away without thinking. However, I think these ones have reached their expiration date (they get used almost every day and have been around for over several months now). </p>
<p>Still, you’re right about not wasting what are still usable cups. I won’t throw away the old ones (they get thrown away one by one as they break anyway, so we’re getting a bit low), and I won’t buy more durable non-disposable cups in case that would be weird, but I will buy some new disposable ones and quietly donate them so that the old ones can finally be retired.</p>
<p>Rorosen- Thanks.</p>
<p>seole, you might make your group aware that aside from sanitary considerations, it is dangerous to keep reusing certain plastic products. The pastic breaks down and releases dangerous/carcinogenic chemicals into the water, tea, etc. I had been in the habit of re-filling water bottles for my kids to take to sports games, until I saw a newspaper article explaining the problem. Now I do it several times, but then throw them away. I didn’t re-read everything you said, so this may not be an appropriate suggestion, but perhaps some anonymous benefactor could donate some cups of the non-disposable variety instead. If they’re being washed anyway…</p>
<p>The GFG makes a good point. Plastic does disintegrate. If the plastic cups are being re-used, the group might as well buy non-disposable ones. There are some that are stackable–usually a selling point for plastic cups.</p>
<p>You can often get real mugs quite cheaply at the thrift shop.</p>