I totally believe it, but it is just so wild to me that it has gotten to the point where we can somewhat confidently say that most Americans just do not cook at all.
I just don't even understand how that works, even if you have enough income, how do you have enough space to like store all the trash for the week?
Don't you just get tired of restraunt food at some point?
> Today, 82 percent of the meals Americans eat are prepared at home, a much higher percentage than a decade ago, according to research from NPD Group Inc. cited by Bloomberg.
Uncited comments on HN are frequently confidently incorrect, especially when they are descriptions of average American culture
Maybe if you're a highly paid SWE in California with endless takeout options you never cook but that's an absurd proposition for flyover country
It really isn’t BS at all. I’m in Ohio and almost nobody I know under the age of 40 knows how to cook anything that doesn’t come out of a can or a box. “Prepared at home” in many cases is just warming up processed foods or combining a couple processed ingredients.
The vast majority of the people I see actually buying produce at the grocery store are older people and immigrants. Almost everyone else is buying the processed crap in the aisles.
Please, the meals that are so-called "prepared at home" in the statistics are mere assembly of highly processed ready to eat foods. Final assembly is hardly cooking. That said, in general more people are cooking from primary ingredients than in the recent past, I agree.
There are different degrees of food prep. Microwaving frozen chicken nuggets is considered preparing at home but is a far cry from prepare a meal from scratch. There's also a myriad of options in between.
In the US in many places trash disposal is a flat rate included in your utility bill, rolled up into your rent, or you have a common dumpster area you can throw trash into for free. This isn't Switzerland where you have to pay two bucks for a LICENSED small plastic trash bag. Here you can generate as much residential trash as you want for the same price or for free if you drive the trash to the county dump yourself. You have to call the county to schedule a pickup of huge trash like for appliances if your new appliance delivery people won't take your old stuff.
Maybe its just me, or maybe I've spent too much time working in kitchens, but there is an overriding sameness to restaurant food even if you are considering the full spectrum of McDonald's to fancy steakhouse takeout. Something about the necessary restrictions and specificity in cooking commercially in big kitchens creates certain tendencies around flavors and salt and such that I just personally need a break from if I find myself eating out a lot. But I guess that is extremely subjective.
In the big chains it's overwhelming consolidation and cost cutting that completely eliminated flavor. Sugar and heat compensate for the lack of flavor. Finally, overweight and obese people perceive the things they eat differently than if their BMI was normal (personal experience going from obese class 1 to normal). If the majority of your clientele are obese or overweight, you will update the menu to appease their palate. Forty-one percent of U.S. adults, on average over the past five years, from 2017 to 2021, have characterized themselves as overweight or obese.
> you can generate as much residential trash as you want for the same price or for free if you drive the trash to the county dump yourself.
They charge a fee if you do that in my county, and the "flat rate" is dependent on the size of your bin, as a proxy for how much trash you generate. If you have more trash than fits in your bin you have to buy stickers for the extra bags to pay for them to be picked up.
It's highly dependent on where you live. Some cities/suburbs find it easier to financially manage flat rate payments instead of usage-based. Many would argue this is counterproductive and they are probably overcharging some citizens, but the upside in logistical billing makes it worth it (for now).
Garland TX, a suburb of Dallas, has a flat rate per bin, with free curbside large item/landscaping waste twice a month. Throw your old washing machine on the curb and move on with your life!
My mother in law, lives about 50 miles outside the DFW Metroplex and pays a flat rate based on the average of her trash usage. She rolls 2 bins up to the curb once a week. She can put more out and they will take it, but if she consistently puts out more trash, they will bill her extra when it comes time to renew every year. The guys on the trash truck keep a rolling tally of your "usage" and then the office works out who needs to pay more if the customer skews towards more usage than they signed up for.
I live in Europe now and moved here last year. I pay $12 PER PICKUP for residential trash here in the Netherlands. The catch? They pickup that bin ONCE every TWO MONTHS. If I want to throw more stuff away, I need to somehow transport all my trash to the local dump, pay a fee, and unload and sort it all myself.
On a more positive note though, recycling plastic is free. Some of my neighbors generate an entire large bag of plastic every day. My wife and I fill up one bag a week. Our "normal trash" bin is usually half full when it's time for pickup.
Pricing for waste is largely dependent on the municipality as well here in the Netherlands.
I have live in 5 different states, 3 had "free" municipal trash, 2 had cheap flat rate trash. Currently, I am in Omaha and if your weekly trash fits in the generous 100 gallon or so bin it is flat rate. If you need a second bin you pay extra for just that bin.
My household typically throws away 3 or 4 ten gallons bags per week leaving the bin maybe a quarter full. The neighbors across the street are constantly having food delivered and routinely fill two bins.
I just don't even understand how that works, even if you have enough income, how do you have enough space to like store all the trash for the week?
Don't you just get tired of restraunt food at some point?