[siedes]

In South Korea, when you order from certain places for certain types of food, they come in actual containers/tupperwares that you just leave outside your door and someone from the restaurant will come pick it up at some point.

I don't see it working in the U.S. though, since people would probably be stealing them and other horrific stuff. Just a very different culture...

[standardUser]

Green Tiffin is US a meal delivery service that uses reusable containers that you rinse out and then return at the next delivery.

It seems to work just fine, nothing "horrific" about it.

[ggm]

The key word here is "return" because the Korean model is not to return the dishes, its to leave them to be collected.

The horrific part, is an imputed risk the dishes in america become stolen, used as weapons, frisbees..

[microcolonel]

> The horrific part, is an imputed risk the dishes in america become stolen, used as weapons, frisbees..

I think the primary schools in east asia, excluding China for obvious reasons, are the birthplace [0] of a form of civic cohesion that the U.S. and Canada (virtually the same culture, despite what people say) lack. We have the rule of law and consequences, and that's a good start, but there's a missing piece.

[0] in addition to the home, I guess, but good luck improving that first.

[siedes]

We have laws to punish bad behavior after it happens, while they have a culture that reinforces good behavior from the start.

Nowadays, it seems like trying to enforce good/proper behavior in the U.S. would be taken as an affront to personal freedom or "forcing one's culture onto others", so perhaps we need a different way to incentivize good behavior in this multicultural society where it's almost a sin to want and expect others to do something for the good of anyone but themselves.

[dd36]

Make a new culture.

[siedes]

How do we convince other cultures to adapt to the new culture though? Any such efforts would be drowned out by cries of racism and cultural erasure or whatever they're calling it nowadays.

[jldugger]

If they're stolen, they'll at least be reused, right?

[evandev]

It is reduce, reuse, recycle in that order for a reason. If it is stolen the restaurant will need to buy another set. And reusing is worse than reducing.

[ben-schaaf]

Why reuse them when whoever you stole them from will have fresh ones tomorrow?

[avip]

I'd agree the risk of dishes being used as frisbees, though low, is likely higher in NA than in Asia.