Meredith Vieira is quite a pack rat! During an appearance on Today with Hoda & Jenna on Monday, April 22, Vieira, who was filling in for new mom of two Hoda Kotb, revealed that she’s not one to throw away disposable flatware and plates after they have been used.
In fact, during an Earth Day discussion with Jenna Bush Hager and Dylan Dreyer, the former Today Show cohost went so far as to admit that she hasn’t tossed her disposable plastic eating utensils or plates for about two decades. “You know what I do — and my friends think it’s kind of disgusting — but I have plasticware that goes back probably 20 years because I just wash it,” she explained. “I don’t want to throw it away.”
The journalist, 65, revealed that she often washes and reuses paper plates as well, which she admitted is “probably bad, too.”
“No you don’t!” Bush Hager, 37, said in horror, while Dryer, also 37, couldn’t understand how reusing paper plates was even possible.
“Do not judge me! I wipe them off,” Vieira clarified, adding that she does dispose of plasticware that she deems “disgusting,” such as a plate that has been used to eat “gravy or turkey.”
According to the former cohost of The View, the paper goods she does manage to salvage (like a plate that has only been used to host a cookie) is then used for kid’s parties because, as she put it, “Who cares?”
Given her cohosts disbelief, Vierira then explained why she hangs on to the utensils. “I don’t want to throw it away because I feel — where’s it going?” she said. Considering approximately 90 percent of the trash floating in our oceans is made of plastic, the television personality is clearly onto something with her pack rat tendencies.
Still, Vieira seemingly understood that her habit isn’t for everyone. “I guess nobody’s coming for a picnic at my house!” she joked.