CH 4 Prog about Packaging

nodwah

Did anyone see this? Friday ay 7.30?

They were looking at the ridiculous amount of packaging we bring home from the shops. it amount to at least a quarter of the bulk that we lug home.

This was brought home to me on holiday last week on an island in the Hebrides where they ask you to take your rubbish away with you when you go home, so they don't have plastic flying all over the place. It was amazing how much you actually produce in a week and that was with us using all the papery stuff to light the fire.

It's made me resolve to use as little as poss, tho one problem is with the supermarket internet orders I get they often send stupid amounts of plastic bags with one item in them. I should give them back to the driver but I'm usually too rushed.

SO who else is annoyed by packaging?

LJM

in my own opinion there is far too much packeging on items now adays,i have the reusable bags for shopping so i dont have so many carriers floating around,but it is true i believe that you pay more in some places just for the fancy packageing,which is a waste of money

nodwah

YOu're right LJM, the guy on the prog, made some shower gel for a cost of 10p, got a bottle for 29p and this was the same recipe as a leading brand which you buy for £1.99!

jbbonce

nodwah wrote: »

It's made me resolve to use as little as poss, tho one problem is with the supermarket internet orders I get they often send stupid amounts of plastic bags with one item in them. I should give them back to the driver but I'm usually too rushed.

tesco internet now let you opt to have green clubcard points instead of using carrier bags. it is an option on the checkout page

rovinia

I have just sorted out my pltic carrier bags - despite the NY resolution to not use them I reckon I have 100 - so I sorted the good ones, put strong ones in pockets of all the coats and bags I use, got a free jute bag from the library and threatened to fine my family for bringing them back from the shops. It is relatively easy with supermarket and other grocery purchases, whne you buy clothes for eg the sales assistant has bagged the goods up before you can say anything. We have now decided to get all meat from the butcher so it is not pre packed, buy veg and fruit loose and recycle as much as we can. It is tough, not impossible and only what our nans used to do! And don't get me started on why I can only buy onions that have come from New Zealand, don't they grow them in the uk anymore? I can justify Kiwi fruit from NZ but not onions and apples.

Gers

I now either ask the sales assistant to unwrap the goods or do it myself after checkout and leave it behind! Did it in supermarket yesterday. Don't half get some strange looks though.

I even did it an the Orange shop the other day when I bought a tiny wee accessory and it came in one of those big plastic sealed for ever type things. Took the assistant AGES to find a pair of scissors and then cut it all apart. However, he did it cheerfully and willingly so it was OK.

thriftlady_2

rovinia wrote: »

- despite And don't get me started on why I can only buy onions that have come from New Zealand, don't they grow them in the uk anymore? I can justify Kiwi fruit from NZ but not onions and apples.

I've noticed that too, but, I also buy locally grown onions from my local farmshop, and they have been awful this year. All of them have a soft outer layer and inside they are often rotten. They are too slippery to cut safely. I think it must have been a poor harvest here last year. I think onions are pulled in late summer-early autumn, and judging by the wet weather I don't expect it will be a good one this year either.

As for apples, there aren't any English apples in the Summer months as that is when they are growing. My local fruit grower has the first of his apples ready by mid August (Discovery followed by Worcester Pearmain) -not long to wait now

Gingham_Ribbon

It can be avoided with careful shopping to a large extent. My fruit and veg delivery has an occasional thin plastic bag (spinach mainly comes in this) a few paper bags (peaches, runner beans) and a couple of large thick paper sacks that get passed back for reuse. The only waste out of that is the odd thin plastic bag, which screws down into about the size of a golfball.

The odd occasion we buy something that comes in lots of packaging is usually not food. I bought a large mixing bowl recently that came in a cardboard box with air filled pockets inside. DH used the box to package up a parcel he was sending and the airfilled pockets will be used for next time we're sending something that could get broken. If it had been polystyrene I'd have broken it up and used it for drainage in my pot vegetables.

But there is FAR too much packaging on much of what is in the shops and it's something that really annoys me. But if we reject the heavily packaged stuff they might slowly get the message. And it's cheaper too.

I'll move this over to the green board where I think it will get more response.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

this week my youngest came home from school with a carrier bag full of leaflets...and gimick stuff . etc... dished out by various council departments......

about safety...... crossing the road...etc....

dont get me wrong the issues are good and need to be explained in school etc.... but to waste money ...and give out loads of leaflets that are just going to go in the bin/recycling anyway.... surely why not just give them a pen or a pencil...something that is going to be used with the logo on.. rather than junk.....

edit....... its not only supermarkets/shops... its the councils as well.. and they are trying to tell us to cut back on our waste......

moonrakerz

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

this week my youngest came home from school with a carrier bag full of leaflets...and gimick stuff . etc... dished out by various council departments......

... its the councils as well.. and they are trying to tell us to cut back on our waste......

Spot on ! but it's worse than you think ......

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/07/15/eacouncils115.xml