Just read an interesting article in the Guardian today. They sent 3 people out to the major supermarket chains asking them to unwrap their shopping and leave all the wasteful packaging at the check-out (a suggestion made by environment minister Ben Bradshaw apparently). Brilliant idea! But of course it's even better to grow your own food ;)!
If they start using the smart bins that will cost you extra, I will be doing it all the time.
One thing I can't quite come to terms with is Tesco and their bag for life - plastic! Whatever happened to their great brown paper bags? >:(
I think that is a great idea!
Today I didn't put my loose fruit and veg into the little plastic bags they give you in tesco. Got some funny looks at the checkout, but I didn't care!
I am going to try to reuse bags as well - forgot to take any old ones today so had to use new plastic bags. Naughty me!
I have got two or three of those big blue bags from Ikea. 50pence each I think..A couple of 90 odd pence bags from Lidles,really big and dead useful, carry loads of stuff back and forth to the lotty in those,a 99p bag from Aldi ,quite stylish in black :D, very roomy, and a few of those little green bags that Asda were selling a while back.No so good as they don't hold as much although they have been handy on camping trips. I don't ever need a carrier bag. I just take my bag assortment into the shop and I don't give a monkeys if it takes me any longer to pack. It doesn't when I think about it because I'm not desperately trying to prise one of those plastic bags open every 2 minutes and getting in an irritated strop.. I feel really good leaving all those carriers bags behind. Though I feel guilty for not doing it sooner...especially after living in Germany where there wasn't even a sniff of a carrier.
Just do it folks...who cares what anyone else thinks and besides it might be me in the queue or someone else like minded. Think it through.
The co- op bags are bio degradeable so they are the only ones allowed ,I use those for my bin.
I have often left all the useless packaging behind. But then I feel guilty because it'll probably not get put in a recycle bin . Which it would at home.
Why are the bigger packs of bog roll wrapped in plastic? Admittedly I'll use those bags for the bin aswell but I don't really like it. Not bought a bin liner in years.
I absolutely hate all those plastic tags on clothes and things. I had to get rid of 6 from a couple of pairs of tiny gloves for my daughter. Whats wrong with a bit of string and a safety pin...I would use the safety pin and put the string in the compost.
Oh and if you get your shopping delivered...what do they bring it in? Crates,boxes or carriers?
The co- op bags are bio degradeable so they are the only ones allowed ,I use those for my bin.
well, my bin's biodegradable too - it's black, bucket-shaped & I got it from the co-op ::) ;)
QuoteWhats wrong with a bit of string and a safety pin
It's all about cost I'm afraid, besides, the packaging industry paid my mortgage for 8 years ;D
But it's not just the carrier bags. It's the way the food is packaged too: shrink-wrapped cucumbers and celeriac etc. At my local Sainsbury's it's often impossible to buy loose leeks. They are trimmed and packaged in polythene, which is really annoying :( because often I just want to buy one leek to use in a soup.
Quoteoften I just want to buy one leek to use in a soup
Buy? ??? :o
I didn't grow leeks in my first year :-[. But I will next year!
QuoteI didn't grow leeks in my first year Embarrassed. But I will next year!
;D 8) ;D
Totally agree about all the shrink wrapped stuff. Especially veg. Once you get the stuff off and use what you need the rest goes off.
Moulded plastic. Extra cardboard frilly bits. Polystyrene.
What about the way toys are packaged these days? Screwed down with little bits of plastic. Hundreds of plastic tag/tie thingies. Loads of moulded plastic. Cardboard. Stuck with reems of sticky tape. Have to have scissors,screwdriver and brute strength when it's present opening time.
Someone told me it's all to stop the shop lifters. Surely it's more to do with making the thing look attractive in the first place? And the fact the products have to travel half the world to get into the shop.
Whats this thing about keeping all the packaging incase you want to take it back? I'm sure I've had a shop assistant tell me to keep the box a vacuum cleaner came in incase it went wrong within the guaranteed period. It wouldn't be accepted back otherwise. That kind've puts paid to leaving all your packaging in the shop doesn't it? Especially if you want to return something because you just don't like it and not because it's broken, which alot of shops allow these days.
I use my green crates from Safeway - the crates lasted longer than they did.
No bags, much easier to carry and stuff doesn't roll about in the back of the car on the way home ( yes I know, carbon miles etc)
They get used for all sorts of stuff transporting & are the best two lots of 99p I've spent.
I think this (http://www.guardian.co.uk/supermarkets/story/0,,1948062,00.html) is the article that dandelion was referring to.
I heard on Good Food Live that Easter Eggs are one of the worse for packaging as it is something like 14% chocolate, and the rest is the plastic and card packaging!
Quote from: Heldi on November 16, 2006, 10:04:29
What about the way toys are packaged these days? Screwed down with little bits of plastic. Hundreds of plastic tag/tie thingies. Loads of moulded plastic. Cardboard. Stuck with reems of sticky tape. Have to have scissors,screwdriver and brute strength when it's present opening time.
I have now taken to buying the majority of my daughters xmas presents/birthday presents from charity shops. The advantages are: No packaging, item would probably have been chucked in the bin, also helped out a charity at the same time. I also got her a free bike (someone left it outside their house with a sign on it saying "Please take or it will be taken to the dump"). I have had to do some work on it, but she will love it! Probably helps that my daughter is only 3 and doesn't really care where her toys come from. :)
Went to local newly refurbished Asda yesterday, had a moan at the checkout because I couldn't find things and was told that they are now selling more pre- packed and ready made food which must mean loads more packaging.
I have also seen the binmen pick up our recycing bags and sling them on the cart with the black bags on more than one occasion. :o
It seems we can't win here.
I do reuse carriers for poop scooping and also bringing stuff home from the lottie though.
I guess we are all going to have to do what those reporters did in the article. I don't feel like I'm doing enough.
we try to recycle as much as we can,
we could do with a few more places doing brown paper bags for veggies etc, yes, we do occasionally have to buy them :)
we re use our plastic pop bottles, cut 1/4 to 3/4, top half for little cloches in the poly, bottom half for beer traps in the poly, put the top half, with lid, on top of canes, top half, minus top, upside down in the ground next to plants for water, cardboard, t bags, everything we can in the compost bin, heaps and around plants, all you can do is your best :)
When not 'shopping' on our plot, it's either...
down to the greengrocers' with a rucksack on my back (thus still two hands free to marshal Small and Tiny Triffid!)
or
at Waitrose with their clever scanning-handset and the very nice, heavyweight cloth bags they supply to account holders and which will actually take the weight not just of any shopping I can stuff into it (all fruit & veg go in loose) but also of Tiny Triff who plays at hiding in it and thinks it's hilarious when you pick her up in the bag ... ;)
Sort of on the same theme, was absolutely aghast this year when Tesco's Jersey Royals were only available in prepacked plastic containers-was flabbergasted! Also, they were going rotten and you couldn't see!
Mind you, although for years, Tesco have been my main grocery shopping venue, they keep withdrawing all the things that I really want to buy from supermarket. Wonder if it's anything to do with the fact that they think they are the new Bill Gates rival ??? Shoppers go sing - we've got bigger fish to fry! >:( >:(
I’m going sound a bit of a dissident note here. I don’t believe that the food industry and the big retailers DO over-package. Indeed, packaging is so expensive that they have every incentive not to.
Back in the “good old days†when packaging and transport weren’t so effective, I’ve often seen whole lorry-loads of food destroyed. Literally 20 or 30 tons at a time dumped and sprayed with dye under the watchful eye of a health officer because it hadn’t arrived at its destination in good enough shape.
In a world where so many are starving, that’s unacceptable. I’m sure it still happens, but to nothing like the same extent. Sensible packaging cuts down on waste, not increases it.
I’m also old enough to remember the old-fashioned grocers shops that we just wouldn’t tolerate today. Slightly stale biscuits in a tin, a fair percentage of them broken. Bins of flour of who-knew-what vintage. A cat asleep on the sack of sugar.
I looked up www.wasteonline.org.uk Their statistics show a mere 3% of household waste comes from plastic film â€" the sort that is frequently not recycled. Looking at packaging waste, another 3% is metal packaging (cans and foil), the vast majority of which is recycled. 4% is “dense plastic†(presumably mainly plastic bottles and pots, all recyclable), 7% is glass (bottles and jars, recyclable), and 18% is paper and board, although that figure includes much more than paper packaging.
So we’re looking at perhaps 3% to 4% of household waste that’s attributable to packaging and not recycled, although with more effort even that relatively small amount could be.
Even if you believe that it’s a fair swap to increase the amount of wasted food by tonnes in order to decrease the amount of packaging by kilos, remember also that the food has incurred heavy environmental costs in its transport, and you’re throwing away “food miles†too.
Just look at how much our farmers in Kent are given as an incentive to not recycle their waste apples, etc., still! Those days of dying and scrapping are still here ???
Quote from: EmmaLou on November 15, 2006, 20:37:29
I think that is a great idea!
Today I didn't put my loose fruit and veg into the little plastic bags they give you in tesco. Got some funny looks at the checkout, but I didn't care!
I am going to try to reuse bags as well - forgot to take any old ones today so had to use new plastic bags. Naughty me!
don't put veg into a bag at the local coop used to get funny looks until I expained why now they just try to pyramid the carrots on the scales instead. any carriers gat recycled into dog poo bags. I try not to let anything go to waste in our house and buy the lowest ionic surfactants that will do the job, thick bleach is a definate no no and I'm trying to tell a close reletive that at the moment... >:(
I wish I was brave enough to leave all that packaging at the checkout.
I now have a vegbox delivered (had to give up lottie) which uses minimal packaging, and their placcy bags say they are degradeable. I rinse them out and re-use some of them too. All arrives in a re-useable cardboard box, which they collect the next week.
In the shops I do my best to go for the loose fruit and veg, I don't think I've used a bag there for ages. I try to take at least a couple of canvas/calico bags with me on each shopping trip (2 of us so we don't always buy that much) and also buy a lot of bits and pieces on my way home so I just bung it in my rucksack.
I prefer the self-serve tills for avoiding plastic bags, then no one looks at you funny. I got some really funny looks in M&S when I've asked them to put my jumper/skirt/tshirts/whatever in to my calico bags.
A couple of my bags came free from the council, and a couple came from Culpepper herbs - £2 each and better quality than the freebies.
Oh and oddbins sell re-useable 6-bottle synthetic fabric carriers - that gets used a couple of times a week too :P
We have all become conditioned by the supermarkets to accept the tasteless rubbish thats transported around the world. If they were to use fruit and veg in season in this country instead of insisting we get pears and apples etc. from South Africa and god knows where else, they could then cut down on all that packaging. They only sell the high yield, cheap tat so they can make a decent profit, and of course get it from overseas so they can pay the poor farmer next to nothing for it. Why have we got so many farms in this country going out of business or having fields set aside. This summer you could not get English Tomatoes in my local Tesco, or English Conference Pears, or Strawberries, shall I go on, both available from our local farm shop. The rubbish they do sell goes off within days. I now only buy fruit and veg from the local farm shop. It might cost slightly more, and thats debatable, but at least it lasts more than a couple of days, you normally get a choice of variety, and most important, if its in season it's British!!! And hopefully from next year I'll have enough of the lottie to keep me going.
As for the leaving the packaging at the checkout, go for it. My wife won't take me shopping anymore because of the moaning I do. It was good fun in Tesco's when she produced her half dozen or so heavy duty M&S bags to put all the shopping in. As for Tesco's carriers, how the hell they expect you to use them more than once I don't know. Whenever I have been shopping , I've been lucky to get them home in one piece they are so flimsy. Usually the one with the booze in goes first!
I'm genuinely puzzled here. A wholesale box used for apples from Kent or Worcestershire looks just the same to me as the sort of box used to carry apples from New Zealand. Same thickness and construction, same layers of styrofoam to keep the apples from bruising. Can someone explain the difference?
And every supermarket that I've shopped in this year had English (and indeed Scottish) strawberries in season. I didn't buy the entire stock, honest. Surely someone else must also have seen them!
And, coincidentally, I went into a Tesco in Trowbridge last night. The ladies at the checkout made a point of asking every customer whether they had brought their own bags for their shopping, and I felt rather guilty that I had not.
B & Q have stopped automatically putting items into bags. They are now charging if you want a bag; it's amazing how quickly you can do without a bag when it is not free!