Hugh's War on Waste

moneyistooshorttomention

Rainy-Days wrote: »

You know what you are right! Years ago when the Body Shop first started to become really well known I used to buy their products allot. I liked Anita Roddick's ethics. Her novel approiach to recycling packaging. I liked her business approach and the fact that everything was ethically done.

What happened - well she sold out to L'Oreal the biggest one who test on animals and whose general ethics are bothersome. Okay she''s not the only one Liz Earle did it with Avon as well. Difficult for those of us who supported both companies because of their stance to then sell out to the highest bidder!

Edited to add as an afterthought - if you have a company with good business ethics it becomes a good selling point. Treat suppliers fairly and have a ethical approach and you can still turn a healthy profit. Roddick sold out for around £440 million - not bad going really!

Seconded. Having met Anita Roddick one time my verdict was definitely "No flies on her"....Being "ethical" was being done at least partly as a distinct business thing...

Bearing in mind the previous history of Barclays Bank and some chocolate manufacturers (eg Cadburys) - I just took it as "She's read the history books and realised that Ethics do pay sometimes". That enlightened self-interest concept that I personally think makes a lot of sense...

[Deleted User]

Here here Mrs LW I agree entirely.The dustmen back then did exactly that, removed the 'dust' mainly from the remains of the open fires that people had and rarely had much else in their bins to empty.

I too am a great recycle-er, but my generation of WW2 and post-war children knew of no other way of life.I don't look back with rosy-tinted spectacles on those days .A lot of the time we were bloody cold in the winter, and food was often if not in short supply, then fairly monotonous.But people survived and there weren't the food banks that are mushrooming about today.One would think that in today's wealthier society there wouldn't be the wastage there is but sadly it seems everyone will have to try and change their ideas about what they throw away.I was at the local pub last night at a quiz and did a straw poll of the two teams there about how much they waste and out of the dozen or so people there at least 60% were over 45 and said they had not only cut back on wasting stuff but recycled more and tried to use up stuff they had bought .The other 40% said that they wouldn't dream of using something that was a day out of date, as to them it meant that they would probably get really ill.When explained the difference between out- of-date and use-by in the shops most were quite surprised that it meant different things Perhaps more education on labeling would be helpful.

I sometimes have the feeling that the dates are more for stock control in the big SM than actual safety reasons.
I use the best quality control I know its my nose, if it smells OK and looks OK then it hopefully won't kill me .Never let me down yet in over 70 years.

Pollycat

This 'demanding' of perfection by large retailers is not really new.

My OH told me that before I met him (over 30 years ago) he knew a poultry farmer who had a contract to supply fresh chickens.

After this supplier rejected batch-after-batch because of looks, the farmer pulled the plug on the contract.

No idea what happened after that.

preciousillusions

Pollycat wrote: »

As I said above, I think a lot of it is down to education, so I think it is ignorance of using stuff up to a great extent.

When I mentioned illness and disorder I was thinking mostly of mental health and eating disorders. It's complex and not something to go into here really but yeah that's def not lack of education, trust me. I feel terribly guilty about wasting food sometimes but for me, it's actually a better alternative than making myself waste it in other ways. & I know friends with similar issues that might buy food as a challenge then end up throwing it away as they are too scared to eat it. Others with depression might end up discarding food if they aren't taking care of themselves, or OCD sufferers due to fear of food being bad when it is perfectly fine. I just wanted to note that it isn't as black and white as it may seem.

Pollycat

preciousillusions wrote: »

When I mentioned illness and disorder I was thinking mostly of mental health and eating disorders. It's complex and not something to go into here really but yeah that's def not lack of education, trust me. I feel terribly guilty about wasting food sometimes but for me, it's actually a better alternative than making myself waste it in other ways. & I know friends with similar issues that might buy food as a challenge then end up throwing it away as they are too scared to eat it. Others with depression might end up discarding food if they aren't taking care of themselves, or OCD sufferers due to fear of food being bad when it is perfectly fine. I just wanted to note that it isn't as black and white as it may seem.

I do understand your point but I think that poor education probably out-weighs the issues that people you mention above have about food.

missbiggles1

preciousillusions wrote: »

When I mentioned illness and disorder I was thinking mostly of mental health and eating disorders. It's complex and not something to go into here really but yeah that's def not lack of education, trust me. I feel terribly guilty about wasting food sometimes but for me, it's actually a better alternative than making myself waste it in other ways. & I know friends with similar issues that might buy food as a challenge then end up throwing it away as they are too scared to eat it. Others with depression might end up discarding food if they aren't taking care of themselves, or OCD sufferers due to fear of food being bad when it is perfectly fine. I just wanted to note that it isn't as black and white as it may seem.

Even mentally ill people have freezers!

catkins

Rainy-Days wrote: »

On the backdrop of that there is all sorts of extra things going on, there is the labour, the fuel costs (not just harvesting but planting as well and getting it to store) there are the resources that are involved not just the diesel for the farm machinery, but everything from the growing process to the harvest to getting it into the stores perfectly washed and bagged - all that was shown last night was pre-packed. Go into every supermarket and only a small amount is actually loose fruit and veg. If I only want two Leeks why do I need to buy a pack that has four in it? Even though buying two loose leeks works out more expensive than the pre-packed stuff!

Classic was last week I got a pack of charlotte new potatoes, it was actually cheaper to buy the pack than actually buy the exact quantity that I needed loosely? What happened? I threw the remainder out this week because they were not going to get used! Thats just mad and it's downright wasteful, but in truth it was the cheapest way of buying it!

We have become accustomed to buying food already washed and prepared - through laziness in some part but also for asthetics by the supermarkets. If we were forced into only buying what was needed - i.e. not pre-packed then the rate of household food waste would - in theory I hope - drop.

I constantly read and hear people saying that they resent the BOGOFF offers because simply they just want one item. If they actually halved the price of that one item it would make life easier and I agree on that point. Classic one is Lurpak spreadable. I don't want two 500g packs of butter for £4.00 I just want one so why can't I have it for £2.00 why do I need to pay £3.25 for a single one? The supermarkets drive it because it's turnover and revenue boosting. The shareholders are to blame as well constantly pushing the supermarket for bigger profits to fuel even bigger dividends!

I have a Tesco, Sainsburys, Lidl, Aldi, Asda and Waitrose fairly close by and a Morrisons a bit further away. They all have a great deal of veg loose which is how I usually buy it. It's usually cheaper and I don't want packaged veg.


Not sure why you threw the potatoes away. If stored in a cool place they keep for some time if you could not think of a way to use them.


I don't mind the BOGOFF offers too much as I buy one and freeze one. I definitely do that with Lurpack. Even if you don't have room in the freezer the tubs usually have quite long sell by dates on them.


One of the things that always surprises me is that a lot of the people that throw good food away are not particularly young. I just assume that older people would have more sense and a "waste not want not" attitude.


I know a lot of the younger generation see most things as throwaway. There is a big music festival held in my town and every year the majority of the attendees who camp just up and go leaving their tents, sleeping bags, chairs etc behind. They don't even bother taking their tents down - they just expect someone else to clear up after them. I know small tents are not that expensive but it's definitely a case of more money than sense

Pollycat

missbiggles1 wrote: »

Even mentally ill people have freezers!

Even mentally healthy people have freezers but I'm not sure all of them know what it's possible to put in them - hence all the stuff chucked away.

Rainy-Days

catkins wrote: »

I have a Tesco, Sainsburys, Lidl, Aldi, Asda and Waitrose fairly close by and a Morrisons a bit further away. They all have a great deal of veg loose which is how I usually buy it. It's usually cheaper and I don't want packaged veg.

A few things when I have weighed them have come in a bit more expensive than the pre-packed! So, I try to avoid getting it from the supermarkets and buy it from the market instead, its generally cheaper that way! Lidl and Aldi tend to have a most of it pre-packed especially on their super six!

catkins wrote: »

Not sure why you threw the potatoes away. If stored in a cool place they keep for some time if you could not think of a way to use them.

There was five of them left and they went to seed (went soft and had a couple of new shoots) fairly quickly even though I kept them in the potato cloth bag, so I put them in the compost bin!

catkins wrote: »

I don't mind the BOGOFF offers too much as I buy one and freeze one. I definitely do that with Lurpack. Even if you don't have room in the freezer the tubs usually have quite long sell by dates on them.

The last time I tried to freeze the Lurpak it went rancid quite quickly after thawing (thawed out in fridge). Kind of had an off taste about it some days later. Not sure why that was, so decided not to do that again. The tubs have a shelf life of six weeks and we don't use huge amounts of it. Sometimes to get it used up I put a lump of it into mash pototoes for creaminess when mashing. We don't eat loads of sandwiches or toast etc! Its for things like jacket pototoes - there is just the two of us in the house and one pack roughly lasts us about a month!

catkins wrote: »

I know a lot of the younger generation see most things as throwaway. There is a big music festival held in my town and every year the majority of the attendees who camp just up and go leaving their tents, sleeping bags, chairs etc behind. They don't even bother taking their tents down - they just expect someone else to clear up after them. I know small tents are not that expensive but it's definitely a case of more money than sense

The only thing that is great about about the Glastonbury festival is that tents left behind are reccyled and shipped out of the country. I must admit that they do recycle vast amounts there so kudos to them!

honeythewitch

preciousillusions wrote: »

When I mentioned illness and disorder I was thinking mostly of mental health and eating disorders. It's complex and not something to go into here really but yeah that's def not lack of education, trust me. I feel terribly guilty about wasting food sometimes but for me, it's actually a better alternative than making myself waste it in other ways. & I know friends with similar issues that might buy food as a challenge then end up throwing it away as they are too scared to eat it. Others with depression might end up discarding food if they aren't taking care of themselves, or OCD sufferers due to fear of food being bad when it is perfectly fine. I just wanted to note that it isn't as black and white as it may seem.

Absolutely. Many people with eating disorders (and their families) have to buy a selection of everything they think the sufferer might be able to eat, just in case, and a lot inevitably gets thrown away.
My advice to anyone in this situation is to carry on doing everything you can to reduce the stress around food and dont let anyone make you feel guilty about "waste" (in whatever form)

missbiggles1 wrote: »

Even mentally ill people have freezers!

And very often an extensive knowledge about preparing and storing food too, but perhaps not the capacity to deal with it right now, and in my opinion should not be chastised for it.
Do whatever you need to do get through the day. Some things are more important than discarded bacon.