Give the packaging back!

gromituk

I saw an intelligence-free programme on BBC Three where all the shoppers the presenter asked heartily agreed that there was too much packaging, yet all of them had trolleys full of the supermarket's plastic bags! He should have asked them about that instead...

Debt_Free_Chick

amanndajane wrote: »

i work for asda and customers do it all the time, cant say as it bothers me that much, i normally ask them to step to one side to do it and leave it on the side.Unfortunately (to my knowledge anyway)we dont recycle as yet but i`m pestering management about it !!

That's very interesting (well, at least to me).

I thought that the main aim of leaving the packaging was to put pressure on the supermarkets and their suppliers NOT to package things in the first place.

There really is no effect on the environment if packaging is not reduced - it still gets produced and then has to be disposed of :mad: If it's simply being binned or recycled, which is really no better, then there's no point in us "protesting" by removing the packaging at the checkout, as our "protest" has no effect. The supermarket doesn't care as it still has your money!!!! :mad: Plus the slight inconvenience of dealing with the packaging, but have you seen what they dispose of anyway? Our protest is simply a drop in the ocean.

Personally, I buy very little at the supermarkets (I am a fierce anti-supermarket shopper, where I can buy similar elsewhere). My butcher wraps my meat in a sheet of greaseproof paper, without a plastic carton and customary "sanitary towel" in the bottom. He'll put it in a plastic bag if I want, but I don't. And the farm shop has loose unpackaged fruit & veg.

If you really want to protest, then don't buy packaged stuff in the first place!

miss_corerupted

i wish i could, but i live by myself and leave for work at 8 come back at 6 and the only shop open then is my somerfield.

I'm off this week so i have shopped in my butchers and veg shop yeah! (more expensive thou)

full-time-mum

I suspect that all that will happen is that the supermarket will have higher disposal bills themselves and pass on the cost to the customer in increased prices.

or I am just too cynical?

gromituk

No, you're quite correct. As long as they make more profit out of selling overpackaged goods (which appeal to 95% of their customers, whose brains are switched off while shopping) than it costs them to dispose of the packaging people remove in-store, they will do it.

scuzie

I did this recently when buying a new handbag! I removed all the paper stuffed inside. The only person that was annoyed was the guy on the check out - customers all thought it was great. Haven't tried it in a supermarket yet.

chardonnay_2

i really think at present most shops / supermarkets and staff would just put this in their normal waste and wouldn't recycle it. however, if the plans to charge each household for waste come to fruition, i expect more consumers will return their unrecycleable packaging to supermarkets for them to deal with. perhaps, then supermarkets will take notice.

nshaw

Love this thread, have a website of my own up http://www.buyitnaked.org basically a news site. We've just launched and certainly need members.

At some point along the line (with enough support) there'll be organised events aimed at getting supermarkets to reduce their environmental impact. Packaging is a huge part of this. But also food miles, carbon footprint and even composting food spoilage. I had the cheeky notion of a naked shopping trip, we'll see.

GreenNinja

Money is the best motivator for the great majority of people. Start charging for waste and rubbish and I reckon 90% of people would buy unpackaged goods if the choice were offered!

A gripe of mine is buying bananas in a plastic packaging??? why??? they come in their own packaging! the skin!! :mad:

Debt_Free_Chick

I thought that Supermarkets already paid to have all their waste taken away - almost certainly not covered by the Council's waste management or recycling contracts.

In addition, pubs pay to have all the empty bottles disposed of and I wonder how much of that is recycled