Do This

(Rolling Stone photo shoot)

When you ask to sample flavours at a gelato or ice-cream counter, they pass a dab to you using small disposable spoons. After you make up your mind, they hand you your order of gelato with a new spoon stuck in it. You toss the spoon you are already holding in the little bin in front of you.

Why?

Next time you're buying gelato, keep your sampling spoon and tell them not to give you a new one. You have to tell them, cos they stick it in automatically most of the time.

If you own a gelato stall, put up a sign that encourages customers to hold on to their sampling spoons to use for their orders.

If you work at one, ask your employer to do that. Tell them it cuts cost and showing customers that you care for the environment is good for brand image - profit margin appeals to money-grubbers or people who don't really give a shit about one spoon or ten.

I'm not the most environmentally conscious person around, but I try to make up for my resource-wasting ways (keeping my laptop on for hours and hours, the amount of loo paper I use, etc) by being good where I can (rejecting plastic bags that I don't need, not letting restaurant staff change my plates so often, not using four side plates to share two slices of cakes with close friends when four forks will suffice, doing my best to prevent over-ordering in a group and the subsequent food wastage...).

So the ice-cream spoon thing? It bothers me. If you dare say you don't like to mix flavours I will personally smack your head. Just lick it clean and use it. After all, it's not even used enough for me to use the word reuse yet.