[amyjess]

And what if you have motor control issues that makes it impossible to wash cutlery to any standard of cleanliness?

I've said it before, and I've said it again: these anti-plastic laws are actively hostile to people with disabilities.

[tzs]

That's interesting. I have no experience with motor control issues, so that comes as a complete surprise to me.

Eating involves fine manipulation of the cutlery to load it with food, and then hitting a relatively small target surrounded by things that you really don't want to, say, stab with a fork if you miss that target.

I'd have expected that if one has good enough motor control for that, washing cutlery in the sink or a dishwasher would not be a problem, as all the movements required for washing seem to require less accuracy and consistency than do those for eating with the cutlery.

So, clearly, I'm missing something about the mechanics of motor control. Is it because almost all movements involve several different muscles, and so that if one has different levels of control issue with different one that you can get some movements are impossible even though they don't require much precision, and others are possible, even with tight constraints, because even though they involve the same body parts, they differ in the contribution required of each muscle?

[NoodleIncident]

Running through it in my head, the largest hurdle seems to be the pinching motion required to scrape off a blade or tines. I can imagine someone being able to support a utensil from underneath, move it slowly in the right direction, but not able to apply enough pressure to clean it. It might also be harder to keep hold of a wet utensil in water, or it might be impossible to bend over to fill and unload a dishwasher.

Of course, it could be as simple as just saying that you have to feed yourself, but you don't have to do the dishes. Someone might be able to do 10 things a day, but not 20.

[dashundchen]

Which is easier to do?

A) Figuring out how to deal with the external effects of single-use plastic for 500+ million people

or

B) Asking a very small fraction of those 500+ million people with motor control issues who also use single use plastic to use alternatives, of which there are many - including paper, bamboo, and regular cutlery

[Mirioron]

Here's what's going to happen: everyone ignores the issue and the disabled have to figure out a solution for their own drop in quality of life.

[24gttghh]

They make compostable plastic utensils now, along with wooden ones. We should use those instead if we really need something disposable.

[incog-neato]

Please tone down the language here. I'm not for hostility against people with disabilities.

However, keep in mind this is a small fraction of people and does not justify single-use plastics. There's more discussion of alternative materials in other branches of this post.

[baq]

You seem to think there are no alternatives. There are.

[thatfrenchguy]

Dishwasher ?