surely a pdf is the eco-warriors choice media?

But what about the electricty needed to power the viewers device? The energy has to come from somewhere.

Couldn’t resist pitching in if everyone else is coming to argue in empty rooms.

Honestly, some people could have an argument in an empty room

Honestly, I know emoji’s don’t show up on all devices.. but, well, you know.

Nice one. Singletrack.

But what about the electricty needed to power the viewers device? The energy has to come from somewhere.

I harvest energy on steep descents an use it to power my iPad. True. Possibly.

pocpoc
But what about the electricty needed to power the viewers device? The energy has to come from somewhere.

I shouted ages ago that I’ve got first dibs on the electricity that comes from hydro and the windfarms! 😆

Next issue we are launching the ultimate green way to ‘consume’ the mag.

Subscribers can walk to the office and Chipps will read the issue aloud to them.

Subscribers can walk to the office and Chipps will read the issue aloud to them.

Ride to office surely? Will he reenact the photos as well?

More seriously nicely done for the switch.

Subscribers can walk to the office and Chipps will read the issue aloud to them.

Singletrackanory.

I shouted ages ago that I’ve got first dibs on the electricity that comes from hydro and the windfarms!

I thought all that was used up mining for imaginary money? Oh sorry, wrong thread!

Subscribers can walk to the office and Chipps will read the issue aloud to them.

Ride to office surely?

Put their bike in the back of a car and drive it to near office and ride the last five or six miles. Then Chipps can read a story about someone flying their bike somewhere to go for a bike ride. And then explain why that obsolete bike should be replaced with a newer model. While wearing overpriced ‘flannel’ shirts.

/cynic mode

I’d read that! Oh, I just did 😀

I’ve not done the life cycle analysis myself, but when wrapping fruit and veg apparently you’d have to reuse a paper bag five times before it’s overall better for the environment than one single-use thin plastic bag. Hard to see that being practical.

As ever you need to check these things out. And if in the future you find out something new then go with your new information and ignore all the “the gumment told us to buy diesel cars/log burners/whatever”. However, last time I bought some fruit and vegetables (midday today) they came in their own wrapping (banana) or could be easily washed (carrot, parsnip). My gran always took a proper shopping basket and the greengrocer tipped the veg into that straight from the scales.

Magazines used to come rolled up in a paper sleeve at one time, but I suppose the edges risked a bit of dog-earing. Potato plastic sounds a good alternative.

Good response. Well done all.

Singletrackanory.

🥇Today’s winner of the Internet!

Nobeerinthefridge

Subscriber
Non subscriber moans about free magazine.

How very STW.

Posted 1 day ago

except I am still a subscriber and its not free, as I said I just haven’t renewed
regular forum user not reading threads properly and making nonsense jump to conclusion statement
How very STW 😉

And just caught up with the rest of the thread
Thankyou for looking into the change ST, I feel all warm and fuzzy inside now thinking I instigated it even if it is a very small change, might be enough o bring me back into the fold and subscribe again (even though it wasn’t the reason for not renewing)

surely a pdf is the eco-warriors choice media

Yes that’s right because the internet runs on fairy dust…….

I’ve not done the life cycle analysis myself, but when wrapping fruit and veg apparently you’d have to reuse a paper bag five times before it’s overall better for the environment than one single-use thin plastic bag. Hard to see that being practical.

That may well be true, and I’ve seen similar arguments advanced for milk bottles in glass vs. plastic. However, that is only considering the carbon impact, whereas the primary driver for reducing single-use plastic is to prevent the disposal of a waste that is usually not recycled and can result in the well-publicized problem of ending up in the sea.

In case you missed it,

Singletrack 124 | Subscribe Now And Get A Potato Through Your Letterbox!

“we’re rather excited to tell you about our new potato starch packaging. Using 100% biodegradable, compostable, recyclable and reusable bioplastic packaging, your next issue of Singletrack Magazine will arrive safe and dry through your door, a little carb-heavy, but you don’t pay postage so that’s our problem.”

More details on the link if you want to know more.

I should get a free potato for instigating it

Great stuff!

Good point Iain.

Well done STW, we all moan at you when needed, so you should be applauded in this instance 👍👏

Shouldn’t we be more worried about the life cycle of our bikes?
Well done on responding, perhaps as consumers we should put more pressure on companies to make those small but essential changes.

Thread resurrection 🙂

Embarrassingly, I cannot recall noticing much arriving in compostable plastic replacement. So if it does get changed, make it obvious to dispose in the food waste rather than the bin, otherwise it won’t make much difference

This was my post last year…I just resubscribed after a long absence and got the mag. Is it still compostable? There is no writing or logo to suggest it’s compostable, so have I got a free caddy liner, or do I put it in the bin where it will go to an incinerator? Even if there was landfill in my area, food and compostable bags don’t compost in those conditions.

Seems a waste of money at singletrack towers unless you tell us on the packaging!

It seemed the same material as my other recyclable packaging, so I just stuck mine in the compost.

I’ll let you know if it worked in 12 months or so

This is the danger; the wrap is not recyclable with other plastic.

In fact if you stick it in the PE recycling you will gum up the works and the whole batch will have to go to landfill.

At the least there should be an OPRL mark on the packaging. Getting it printed will cost even more, though.

Print it as part of the address label?

Recyclable paper envelope made from recycled paper, as per Cycling UK magazine this month 🤔

We don’t have the option of printing anything other than the address on the potato starch wrapper I’m afraid, but we have been discussing adding a permanent note inside the mag somewhere prominent to highlight how you can dispose of the wrapper.

I’m looking at other sustainable ways of wrapping the mag as, to be honest, the robustness of the potato starch wrapping is not that great. Plus the fact it’s not fully transparent means we can’t access more efficient magazine bulk postal rates which require a printed cover sheet that is readable through the wrapper.

We are working closely with our printer to find a better way of doing this.

From my point of view the package has gone from being recyclable (PE) to not being. It’s not home compostable, and there is no council compost collection where I live, unlike the PE recycling basket in my local supermarket. So it now has to go in the bin 🙁

I would have thought that a pack that uses a Post Consumer Recycled plastic would be a positive step. You would actually be reusing waste plastic in a constructive way and not letting it be left in a ditch.

If it’s potato starch it’s absolutely home compostable.

The only thing you can put in your food and garden bin (aside from food and garden waste) are compostable food bags with the EN1342 seedling logo on which are used to line the kitchen food caddy. These bags are made from potato starch so break down at the same rate as food and garden waste.

https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/retailers/facts-about-compostable-bags

If it’s potato starch it’s absolutely home compostable.

Which is what we will need to do as our recycled compostables are to be garden waste only for this year. No kitchen scraps at all, no shredded paper. I want to shake whoever in the council agreed to this by the throat as it may have saved money on the composting contract but it can not have been a saving as the landfill portion will be increased.

Thanks for your reply Mark. Whilst you look at alternatives, feel free to add my country of ‘COMPOSTABLE’ to the end of my address 🙂

As morecashthandash states above, what about a good (old fashioned) A4 envelope?

✉️✉️✉️✉️💌

The Caravan & Motorhome Club used recyclable ‘plastic’ wrapping for their magazine last year. They have just switched to a paper ‘envelope’ instead.

Is the bulk magazine postage rate really much of a saving? Both my Cycling Weekly & Cycling Plus now come in a standard paper A4 envelope, surprised Cycling Weekly could do that if it were a lot more expensive.

Just make sure the envelope gets used 3 times before it gets thrown in the green smugness box.

Fuzzy. Short answer is yes. We post out over 25k mags a year. The bulk rates we get through our mailing company means that we pay approximately half the cost of standard postage. Plus the service we get is next day delivery. That’s comparing it to 2nd class standard post. If we used standard post it would increase postage costs by over £22k/year.

Also, the potato starch wrapping is done by a machine. It’s costs £0.075 (less than a penny) for each mag. To use paper envelopes would be approximately 4x that cost. Multiply that by 25k. The wrapping is done automatically by our printer as part of their service – there is a paper option open to us but our printer would have to subcontract that job to a local provider – this will have two impacts. It would cost us a lot more and it would delay distribution by 2 days.

By far the cheapest option we have is to go back to standard non recyclable poly wrap that’s half the cost of potato starch wrap. It’s also transparent so we can run a mailing sheet inside the wrap that can be scanned by sorting offices. This would allow us to access Magazine Mail prices for distribution and save us thousands a year. However, we don’t want to do that because the poly wrap is single use plastic that can’t be recycled.

Paper wrap is the best option from an environmental POV but with that extra cost it’s a hard choice for us. We are waiting to explore some other options over the coming months tho and I’ll update you here as and when we get those.

Both my IET magazine and MBUK now come in paper envelopes – and both have been knackered by the time they get through the door.

Speaking of plastic packaging, bought some mushrooms earlier while grocery shopping, was going to buy the usual “punnet” covered in clingfilm when I went all hippy and put some cheaper loose ones in a paper bag instead.

That’s a fair answer Mark tbh

Potato starch wrap makes sense then rather than ramp up costs etc