Ketchup Packets

Category: Environment

YOUR LOCAL DIVE: Curse these vile things. You need 16 packets to get a reasonable amount of ketchup, and your fingers always become annoyingly soiled, along with the table. Additionally, they represent one of the most wasteful uses of non-recyclable packaging material I can imagine. I'm curious to know exactly how much aluminum and plastic goes into each packet, and how it compares to the volume of ketchup dispensed by a full sized bottle.

In our society of convenience, I can understand the motivation for the use of these things, but for 'eat-in' customers at a restaurant, how difficult is it to provide those 'pump-action' ketchup dispensers' with the little paper cups? Or for non-fast-food restaurants, real bottles on the table? I imagine it's cheaper too, cutting down on both ketchup-supply costs, and trash disposal costs. That goes double for pubs and non-chain restaurants that ought to know better. I'd gladly pay a few cents extra for my ketchup to make it happen.

Photo swiped from the Clearfour Condiment Museum.