Consumption Pattern of Disposable Food Containers

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

According to previous researches eating in disposable plastic containers can create risks and wastes for the human body. Leaving these containers in nature will cause environmental problems due to the long period of its return to nature's cycle. In this research, we intend to find people's attitude towards consuming such dishes and adress the question that through which processes has the norms of eating and drinking changed? We conducted an in-depth interview with a hundred middle-class of citizens of Tehran. The findings showed that despite the awareness of citizens about these issues, these containers are used in parties due to ease of consuming and carrying, cheapness, easy access, diversity in shape and color, the perception that they are more hygienic than other containers. The prevalence of these dishes has influenced the style of eating. From a Giddensian approach the whole phenomena of "disposability" can be considered as an abstract system by which behaviours relating to eating will be disembedded from its local space-time and will be re-embedded in another level. Trust in this abstract system is to the extent that the harms of consuming the disposals and the damage they cause to the body and nature are not considered.

Keywords

References

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Iranian Journal of Anthropological Research
Volume 11, Issue 2 - Serial Number 22
Indexing Databases
September 2022
Pages 99-121

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