Eco-Minded Diner Has a Bone To Pick With Doggie Bags

Dear Miss Manners:

Over the past few years I, along with many other people, have tried to do simple things to live a more ecological lifestyle, like reducing my use of disposable and plastic products. One area that continues to frustrate me is restaurant dining.

I view it as wasteful to take my leftovers home in a container that frequently cannot be used again or is of limited usefulness. In addition, many restaurants insist on wrapping the container in a paper or plastic bag, which, of course I can reuse but would prefer not to take.

My idea would be to take along a clean container inside a clean brown bag with string handles and discreetly hand it to the server along with my half-finished plate.

Perhaps a restaurant would view this as non-sanitary, but it seems more sanitary to me than menus that servers pass around between people without regard to who has washed their hands and who hasn't.

Unfortunately, I tried this strategy without checking with you first and was lambasted by my dining companion, who described me as socially inappropriate. He says he questions whether our values are really that similar.

Is he right or am I? Note, I would not do this in a very fancy restaurant or at a business meal, which means perhaps I should have not tried it in front of a special friend.

Here is a radical idea in keeping with your concern about waste, which Miss Manners shares, and your friend's objection, which she shares only to a point:

Why don't you learn to order the amount of food you expect to eat?

Yes, yes, Miss Manners knows about oversize restaurant portions, diets, sudden satiation and whatever else may thwart such an attempt. But you don't seem to be trying. And yet your admission that you would not bring your feedbag to a fancy restaurant or a business meal indicates that you have qualms about its being seemly.

You could call restaurants beforehand to inquire whether they would allow you to order appetizer-size versions of their main courses. You could order only appetizers. You could ask dinner companions whether they would like to split a course. You could find restaurants that offer tasting menus. You could buy takeout and portion the food at home as you like. And so on.