quote: Tim Massett

---

the fella running that business doesn't mind having his dishwasher clean it up for us

---

So you're gonna bring him dozens, maybe hundreds, of dirty popcorn tubs a day, and he's going to hand-wash them for you for free and guaranty they're sanitized etc? I wonder how long that will last. I'm assuming it's a hand-wash task since that would have to be one hell of a large automatic dishwasher to clean a lot of these tubs at one time.

This sounds like a terrible idea to me. Sorry.

Come up with some way to ensure used paper tubs are properly recycled and promote that and you will have done your green thing.
 

---

Posted by Tim Massett (Member # 3512) on 07-20-2009, 04:11 PM:
 
Thanks for that input. While the company owns the restaurant and the theater the health department may look at these as two separate entities. Paper tubs it is..
 

---

Posted by Justin Hamaker (Member # 2165) on 07-20-2009, 06:54 PM:
 
I like the general idea, but I don't think it's practical. You would need to have a significant number of buckets on hand to ensure you had enough for your busiest rush. And then you would need to make sure you had enough to cover a second rush since it's unlikely you would have enough time to wash the buckets in between shows.

You would also incur extra labor costs to collect, transport, and clean the buckets. As far as the actual cost, we pay about 13¢ for a large popcorn bag. At that price you would have to reuse the bucket nearly 50 times to pay for it. Can you be sure you would get 50 uses out of a bucket before it cracked, was swiped, or otherwise became unusable.
 

---

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 07-20-2009, 06:56 PM:
 
I get the feeling that these buckets are the same type of plastic used in the promotional buckets. If that's the case (they aren't "hard" plastic but that more flexible type) then I wouldn't recommend reusing them. They may not be "dishwasher safe" and if your patrons find out you're reusing, they will think you're cheap or gross, or possibly both.
 

---

Posted by Tim Massett (Member # 3512) on 07-20-2009, 08:09 PM:
 
Thanks for the input everyone. I have shelved this cockamamie notion and will embrace the paper tub.

cheers!
tim
 

---

Posted by Justin Hamaker (Member # 2165) on 07-21-2009, 06:50 PM:
 
Tim, if going/being more green is a serious consideration for you, ask your vendors about green products. I believe Packaging Concepts offers a line of popcorn bags that uses an unbleached (natural) paper for the lining on their bags, rather than the waxed paper used now.

One thing we did about a year ago is switch the the Tork Napkin Express napkins. They have special dispensers which prevent people from pulling more than one napkin at a time. This has cut down on the number of napkins we are going through, as well as the number of unused napkins we find left behind on the floors.

If you want to go with the reusable containers, you might look into the possibility of selling a bucket the customer pays to have refilled when they bring back their washed container. This is something you would need to discuss with your local health department to see if there are any issues that would get in the way. But I don't see how it would be that different from places that allow customers to refill their own cups.
 

---

Posted by Bill Enos (Member # 440) on 07-23-2009, 10:13 AM:
 
The health dept. officials here consider a container that may have been washed off premises to be unwashed and it cannot be used to scoop popcorn or ice and may not come into contact with food. You'll have to refill with a scoop.
 

---

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 07-23-2009, 10:41 AM:
 
The city of toronto in their ongoing green policy (one must pay 5c for a shopping bag) is planning to require that all coffee shops and snack bars (theatres included) must accept customer brought in reusable containers and charge extra for any disposable ones
they haven't worked out the details yet
 

---

Posted by Scott D. Neff (Member # 185) on 07-23-2009, 11:11 AM:
 
Though I've never been, I was told (at least 10 years ago) that the Red Vic in San Francisco would serve popcorn in little wooden bowls similar to those you'd eat pretzels out of at a bar. Again, this may have changed in the time since I was told but I'd rather eat out of plastic than wooden bowls any day of the week, especially in the Upper Haight-Ashbury district.
 

---

Posted by Sam Graham (Member # 2889) on 07-23-2009, 02:30 PM:
 
One of the local Carmikes has a Tuesday promotion where you bring your own container and they'll fill it with popcorn for some silly little price.

I bet that staff would have some interesting stories about different containers brought in.
 

---

Posted by Scott D. Neff (Member # 185) on 07-23-2009, 03:39 PM:
 
And all the money they've stolen pocketing the cash.
 

---

Posted by Carl Martin (Member # 1146) on 07-25-2009, 04:18 AM:
 
the red vic still uses the wooden bowls, and they ladle on the butter. it's the only place i buy popcorn (though i only go there 2-3 times a year) and i haven't got sick once. they do spill rather easily, as the rim flattens out rather than sticking straight up.

it's a single screen, seats about 150 i'd say (no capacity listed on cinematour), so cleaning the bowls mightn't be the major issue it would be at a multiplex.

on a good day they have, to my knowledge, the sharpest scope image in san francisco. other aspects of the presentation aren't the best, but it's usually watchable.
 

---