For the past 19 months I have worked at a movie theater in Metairie. I was helping the group of people who clean the auditoriums after the movie lets out and I realized some vital issues. Everyday thousands of people rush to see the latest movie. They spend at least 20 dollars on tickets and way too much money on concessions.
Lets consider what materials are used to make these concessions. The drink cups are way to large for anyone's taste and are made out of alot of paper and alot of plastic. The popcorn bags, nacho trays, and carrying draws are all made out of paper as well. Everything that we serve can be recycled, yet at the end of each movie the employees shovel the cups and bags into a garbage bag and throw it into a compactor. The movie theater generates more garbage probably Loyola and Tulane combined in one day. I can't even describe how ridiculous this is.
The theater prides itself on wanting to be environmentally friendly but why don't we have a recycle bin at least for plastic cups? Our efforts to be environmentally friendly consists of one tiny 3D glasses bin in each screen so we can send them back to the company to be washed and redistributed. I mean this is a start but its not enough. When other employees or myself bring up the ideas of a recycling program, the managers laugh. Is recycling funny? I never thought it was.
As for the food they serve, at the end of the night everything is thrown away. The popcorn is shoved into garbage bags and thrown into the compactor. Hot dogs are saved for the next morning (never eat a hot dog at the movies before noon). Prepared mozzarella sticks, fries, chicken and pizza are thrown away at the end of the night and employees aren't even allowed to take it home. Do you know how hungry we are at the end of our shifts? Do you know how many people chilling under I-10 would love old chicken tenders? Its all a big waste.
There's not much I can do as a pee-on employee but I'm making a point to take popcorn that they throw away at the end of the night and give it to my friends or throw it to the guys under the bridge as I drive home from work. So be careful what you buy at movies. I hope this gives everyone some insight to theaters from now on.
I really like the stance you took on big companies versus low level employees. I worked at a cafe in Barnes & Noble for three years, and the same situation arose. I probably used about 6 gallons of milk per shift alone, the empty jugs of I had to throw away at night in the dumpster. Apparently, before I worked there, the cafe manger had a recycling schedule where he would take boxes of crushed milk jugs to be recycled. That only happened through his own green will. He was not reimbursed by Barnes & Noble because they refused to pay for extra recycling services when it was suggested. Now that he has moved on, there is no plastic recycling at Barnes & Noble. The best any of my fellow low level employees could do was to save banana peels for an employee’s compost. The amount of nonrenewable resouces used in packaging and shipping products for the food service industry is bad enough. We go through thousands of syrup bottles and milk jugs per year. The only saving grace is the cardboard recycling, of which there’s probably a ton a week. What can we do to convince big companies to spend money on recycling their waste? Should it not be mandatory that companies as large as Barnes & Noble recycle? I don’t want to have to live on a cruise ship in outer space.
ReplyDeleteI have been thinking similar things about my places of work. I work at a bar frequented by many Loyola and Tulane students and every day we haul out trash loads of plastic cups and paper napkins. I understand that the management doesn't want to buy glass ware because most of it would break and the workers don't have time to wash dishes and serve the customers. I also work at Rue de la Course where there is the option to have real mugs or glass ware and silver ware, but many customers (staying in the building to use our wifi) still choose the 'to-go' cups. Rue de la course does recycle some of it's coffee grinds for compost, but I don't feel that makes up for the amount of waste we produce.
ReplyDeleteI used to work in a movie theater, and I saw very similar attitudes and behaviors. I worked at the Prytania, though, so I don't think this is as simple as a big company vs. low-level employee situation. It's just about cost-effectiveness and catering to the majority of the customer base.
ReplyDeleteI'm not condoning movie theaters' behaviors, but the sad truth is that most movie goers (and most people) don't care enough or simply just don't think to put something in a recycle bin rather than a trash can.
As for the food waste, how much of that stuff should anyone be eating in the first place? I'd almost say it's better off in the trash and those brands discontinued.
Matt-
ReplyDeleteI think your last statement is a little harsh. Don't get me wrong, I fully support healthy eating and am against the way we are raising most all of the food we consume - livestock, poultry, corn, blah blah blah. I think the point Samantha was trying to make was that there are plenty of people in the city that NEED food. They could probably use the extra calories these fatty foods contain. I don't think the producers of these foods will get discontinued (even if they did someone else would take their spot) so why not make the best out of a disappointing situation and help a brother out.
Sorry if this wasn't clear, but I was joking. Of course we shouldn't be disposing of food when there are people starving just a stone's throw away. My comment on the food waste should be taken as one of concurrence.
ReplyDeleteTwo of my best friends used to work at Pyrtania movie theatre and they have both said under no condition should you eat the hot dogs and that they simply just reheat the popcorn from the day before.
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