We’re flipping destroying the very things that sustain us!

👿

Plastic? How about the atmosphere. We’ve known this shit for decades but “progress” on actually reducing impact is questionable. Makes me sad.

Agree more needs to be done to get manufacturers to change their packaging.

Surfers Against Sewage have been organising beach cleans for donkeys years, you can count the attendance of some of them on one hand.

Anyway, tell me how I’m going to carry my spring onions home from Waitrose without a plastic bag.. and my tomatoes but hold on they come in a plastic tray and a plastic film covering them so that’s fine, but I’ve only got two arms and my milk will dribble on the floor if I have to carry that too..

#irony

Properly cheeses me off the amount of useless plastic packaging us humans use… grrrr

I don’t understand why everything isn’t in cardboard or paper yet? It seems cheaper and more sustainable with far less chemical processes. Do any product designers know why we don’t have paper packaging on everything? It seems stupid to be using plastic in such a disposable way.

“Individually wrapped for freshness”

Or, wrapped in plastic & wrapped in plastic as it’s otherwise known. Piss. Boiled.

Start charging for packaging like they did with carrier bags.

Just today in Sainsburys I walked past a cage full of ‘out of date’ plastic full-sized ready-‘carved’ ‘pumpkins’ that had been on offer from a fiver down to 60p

https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/gb/groceries/sainsburys-halloween-pumpkin-lantern-light-131899909-p?langId=44&storeId=10151&krypto=Q82my6CXWQtYTlernqZsz%2F0JioquaLUD8Yk1wLDRuJwgwIK6CcArNvxyARcwXPDofTiDFexv34MLKIRsIOkebG62DXx2F6Q02A7aEG1L5j13UB%2BDO4evhMT%2BjKOEJm62Pc9EKbX1%2BQ5jGWM6x28n46%2FOJlLOCyb8v5kSYlIWwcA%3D&ddkey=https%3Agb%2Fgroceries%2Fsainsburys-halloween-pumpkin-lantern-light-131899909-p

Must say, even tho so many remained unsold it gave me neither hope nor happiness for our currently miserable species.

Also a massive stack of ‘special’ orange plastic bowls within which to place your plastic-wrapped seasonal treats.

Special orange plastic, mind you. Destined forcthe landfill once the season is finished (ie next morning)

Shampoo marketing guy : I say dear old chemist, can you put some micro beads into the gloop?
Chemist: yer, cheaper than soap and it’ll agrivate the teeny bit of soap we actually put in the gloop.
Shampoo marketing guy: marvellous, we will promote “blonder, shiny, blond, shimmer gloop”
Chemist: but what will happen to the micro beads?
Shampoo marketing guy: down the drain mate now off you go, my bonus needs recalculating

Agree more needs to be done to get manufacturers to change their packaging.

It would only take the introduction of some simple legislation. It’s one of those things future generations will look back on and ask what the hell were we thinking about?

It would only take the introduction of some simple legislation.

A ban on breeders would be a good start. Let the planet recover for a bit.

Paper isn’t necessarily the answer as its manufacture does require nasty chemicals. If the packaging was designed to be reused like proper milk bottles that would be better all round

never. same as anything that threatens wildlife/the planet/ecosystems.

humans are greedy, as long as there are humans, we are ****.

A ban on breeders would be a good start.

Yes! Let’s close down the baby farms.

Even if they just stopped wrapping things that really don’t need to be wrapped it would be a start.

My do they sell bananas in a plastic bag frinstance? They already come in an excellent biodegradable container.

FMCG and food is nearly always plastic packaging where SS larger irregular purchases are often cardboard, it’s the wrong way round!
Ban on plastic packaging for fresh food, reusable packaging for FMCG and processed food would be great but without legislation and with the lobby groups I don’t see it happening

Once it’s a bit closer to too late, we might consider it. It will be a bit later after that that we will consider actually doing something.

Just as an added point the recent introduction of the TPD laws affecting e-cigs has had a massive effect on how much more plastic I get through. Instead of the 100ml glass bottles I used to buy I now have to buy ten 10ml little plastic bottles instead. I throw piles of these in the recycling each month now and God knows if they actually do get recycled.

It’ll change. I have hope.

It probably won’t change fast enough mind.

Conscientiously reducing my usage of clingfilm and it’s really not hard to do.
Also make a lot of my own cleaning products so no more individually wrapped dishwasher tablets.

I’ve been inspired by this Scottish blogger who neither patronises nor scolds:

http://moralfibres.co.uk/

never. same as anything that threatens wildlife/the planet/ecosystems.

humans are greedy, as long as there are humans, we are ****.

My sentiments exactly.

Also make a lot of my own cleaning products so no more individually wrapped dishwasher tablets.

Interesting. What do you use?

(Also you know that not all dishwasher tablets come individually wrapped?)

Happy to share my recipes Graham and, yes, you’re right about dishwasher tablets although they can be harder to find.

I bulk buy from here which makes it cheaper but you need to be careful about postage:

http://www.summernaturals.co.uk/

2 cups of Borax substitute
2 cups of soda crystals
1 cup of citric acid
1 cup of salt
Sweet orange essential oil

Just mix together and I store it in glass jars. Instead of using Rinse Aid, you can use white vinegar which is a staple of many home cleaning recipes. Again bulk buy.

Packaging ain’t the problem, we (human race) are..

Just looked at the article linked to…. Wonder how long the fish survived without the powerade wrapper 😕

I doubt it would be living long either way.

Plenty of diswasher powder available in cardboard.

Plastic bottle and plastic film bags along with paper cardboard and cans /foil /glass are taken back to Tesco for recycling the week after i bought them at Tesco, they have recycling skips for all the above, “every little helps”

Wonder how long the fish survived without the powerade wrapper

Sadder still that the ‘wrapper’ is basically a plastic label used simply to advertise the sexysportyness of the drink. The bottle gets lobbed separately once the wrapper is torn off.

the thought of making dishwasher tablets by hand being eco friendly – is trad washing* up not a better idea in the first place?

to be honest I am fairly firmly in the “sooner humans eff each other up completely the sooner the world can get on with its recovery” camp

* quite happy to be proved otherwise

I am the evil plastic manufacturer. 😈

I’ve worked in the plastic packaging industry for the last 25 years and in all fairness lots has changed in that time, but also we are using more and more needless packaging. I’ve been exposed to lots of new ideas about reusable and degrading plastics and “packaging solutions”. But most, if not all, have fallen by the wayside due to the customer not being prepared to invest in something better.

I also did a stint within the drinks filling industry. Now there is an industry that on the surface looks environmentally friendly. Glass bottles and aluminium cans. Both recyclable in very easy systems, but the transportation costs are horrendous. Lorries transporting half empty loads because it weighs so much empty, or is just fresh air, then third full lorries to take away the filled bottles or cans.

Where I am now at least manufacture the PET bottles on site, so the material arrives by tanker, 2 or 3 a day, and then leaves when filled. It use to be a lorry “full” of empty bottles every 20 minutes, 24/7, plus they would then leave completely empty to return to refill with more fresh air.

I’m not making any claims that it good, far from it, but most of the packaging we see is customer driven, off the back of “packaging designers”. If prepackaged fruit and veg didn’t sell as well as it does then it wouldn’t exist. It sells because that’s how people want to buy it.

is trad washing* up not a better idea in the first place?

Wasn’t there a thing a while ago that dishwashers used less water/energy than washing by hand?

Might help a bit if more people actually put the right stuff in their bin , we do one week mixed recycling, then landfill (actually incinerated these days), most times when I tip out the lorry it all looks the same , and the stuff that gets wasted is horrendous, the amount of food that people throw out is unbelievable , we are so wasteful.

Wasn’t there a thing a while ago that dishwashers used less water/energy than washing by hand?

Yes there was.

Our dishwasher has a few litres of water sloshing about in the bottom whenever I open it. No way I could wash all those dishes in that amount of water.

to be honest I am fairly firmly in the “sooner humans eff each other up completely the sooner the world can get on with its recovery” camp

Never understood why humans coming out with this line and yet not being suicidal. If you aren’t suicidal, then there’s your answer.

If prepackaged fruit and veg didn’t sell as well as it does then it wouldn’t exist. It sells because that’s how people want to buy it.

The clear and obvious alternative is to ban it. Then we wouldn’t have a choice, loose produce would become normal again in a matter of months and no-one would give it a second thought.

Well we’re far from perfect chez nous but most of our food is from local shops rather than supermarkets so we do our bit for reducing packing that way. Our milk is delivered in glass bottles. We recycle. However one thing I found alarming on a TV programme recently is the discovery of fine plastic filaments in plankton. They come from washing clothes made with artificial fibres.

So every time you wash your fleece or Helly you are polluting the oceans.

However one thing I found alarming on a TV programme recently is the discovery of fine plastic filaments in plankton.

That’s old news, as a result of fish eating that plankton there is now evidence of plastic particles present in the actual flesh of the fish we eat.

Maybe we will do something when we ourselves are partially composed of plastic (if not so already)?

Oops, too late we already are.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/01/24/seafood-eaters-ingest-11000-tiny-pieces-plastic-every-year-study/

Couple of years ago I emailed Waitrose customer service why they package tomatoes in black plastic trays when black plastic could not be recycled by many councils and explained that I fully understood why it could not be recycled so why didn’t they change to a different colour or clear.

They replied avoiding my question going on about how companies had been investing in research into black pigments which could still let the plastic type be identified.

I replied I knew this already (as per my original email) and asked again why they didn’t just change to a different colour or used clear plastic instead.

I got the same email back…

I tried again…and got the same again.

In the end we stopped shopping there most of the time and buy tomatoes from Aldi who use clear plastic trays.

Every time I go into a supermarket the packaging makes me sad/angry/depressed. Likewise when I see it washed up on the beach.

I always collect rubbish when I see it when I am out, especially on the beach and my nephew does likewise now.

In the end we stopped shopping there most of the time and buy tomatoes from Aldi who use clear plastic trays.

Or go to a grocers and buy loose tomatoes in a recycled brown paper bag?

Or go to a grocers and buy loose tomatoes in a recycled brown paper bag?

Ha. Ha. Ha. Who has the time, inclination and the money to do that?

Also – have you ever tried parking a car near a local grocers?

Besides, most local ‘grocers’ are Tesco/One Stop etc.

Besides, most local grocers provide pkastic bags for produce.

Also, we got/get what we want. And we want to do it ‘all in one’. At a superstore. With free parking. All wrapped in plastic.

Just being sarcastic btw. Currently eating ongoing late-ripening toms out of friend’s polytunnel. Amazing, they actually taste like tomatoes too. Something that the supermarket-stocked ‘on the vine’ (they grow on vines????) offerings quite spectacularly fail to achieve.
#blandoverpricedtoss