Made using https://sankeymatic.com/build/ and all the info comes from a 90 day sample of invoices from Sysco and US Foods.

Post from yesterday got some traction so I decided to do an in-depth breakdown of the plastic waste.

Hoping to use this as a pathway to start eliminating plastic use at our establishment!

I hope this doesn't garner any pickle hate, they come in 5-gallon buckets which we save and give out to customers that are in construction. But I imagine they don't last very long since they keep coming back for them.

Also what is missing from this is all the plastic packaging around meat products we receive. For example, a 40-pound case of chicken comes in four 10-lb vacuum-sealed bags. Didn't really want to deal with that

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Dude 7 1/2 pounds of pickle spears per week is ridiculous.

And maybe switch to glass ketchup bottles?

Yeah, I question where they got these numbers. 5 pounds of coffee creamers sums like it would be a lot.

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2.59 lbs of latex gloves for a week?

That's nothing. Where is their health inspector?

This is shockingly less then what I would have guessed

oh my! pickles by request!

We go through 2040 creamers a week. Each empty package is 1.2 grams so a total of 2448g converts to 5.39 lbs.

We order 5-6 cases of creamer a week.

Pickle spears come in 5 gallon buckets which are about 2.5 pounds each. We order around 3 every week so that's where that high number comes from. We usually save the buckets and give them out to the construction guys, but they only get one or two uses out of them because they keep coming back for more.

Will probably start pickling cucumbers, not only do they come in these buckets that get used once or twice then tossed but also come with their pickling brine which adds a lot of water weight.

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Glass isn't always the solution, for one its a lot heavier than plastic so there are added carbon costs of moving glass. Also only about 35% of glass is recycled in the US.

Looking into into making our own ketchup and serving that way.

I hate how many gloves we go through, I actually tell the staff to just wash their hands often. Whats the point of a glove if its dirty and your still touching food?

I don't think a Sankey diagram is the right form for this.

I've heard different perspectives on plastics in terms of ecological and environmental impact. From a decarbonization perspective, there's an argument that seems to have merit: that it's a good method of sequestration as long as it's buried in a landfill and isn't of the types (PVC, EPS, etc) that can decompose carcinogenic or teratogenic plasticizers into the environment. Most of the plastic waste by tonnage is PE or PP and comprised of fairly clean hydrocarbon chains.

Im not really a data pro, what would have been a better type of graph?

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Pickle spears are not actually made out of plastic. They're made out of cucumbers

Latex is not plastic. It’s a natural rubber and is biodegradable so shouldn’t be on this diagram.