Give the packaging back!

gromituk

Yes, supermarkets pay - but far, far too little to persuade them to reduce packaging for the sadly tiny percentage of people who remove it in-store. For most of the rest, overpackaging is simply an encouragement to buy.

Shanynee

I dump all unnecessay packaging at the checkout till regularly. Even though I recycle absolutely everything I can at home I feel like it is the only way to try and get the message across to shops and supermarkets. Yes it's not ideal and it probably is not recycled but as with most environmental 'causes' if everyone took the same approach the supermarkets/politicians would soon pay attention. Unfortunately most people dont seem to care or if they do they are too embarassed to do anything about it.

oldMcDonald

Shanynee wrote: »

I dump all unnecessay packaging at the checkout till regularly. Even though I recycle absolutely everything I can at home I feel like it is the only way to try and get the message across to shops and supermarkets. Yes it's not ideal and it probably is not recycled but as with most environmental 'causes' if everyone took the same approach the supermarkets/politicians would soon pay attention. Unfortunately most people dont seem to care or if they do they are too embarassed to do anything about it.

I am one of those who are too embarassed to do this , but I so wish that I wasn't.

I often find carrier bags of rubbish dumped in supermarket trollies, I'm starting to wonder now if these bags are full of excess packaging - I've always been curious about why people put their rubbish into trollies, I thought it was from cleaning out their cars (shows you how awful a state my car is!!)

gromituk

If they cared about excess packaging, the rubbish would not be in carrier bags!

Shanynee

oldMcDonald wrote: »

I am one of those who are too embarassed to do this , but I so wish that I wasn't.

I often find carrier bags of rubbish dumped in supermarket trollies, I'm starting to wonder now if these bags are full of excess packaging - I've always been curious about why people put their rubbish into trollies, I thought it was from cleaning out their cars (shows you how awful a state my car is!!)

It is sometimes embarassing, I still sometimes feel my face heating up and the sweat beads forming as I struggle to free my lemons from their plastic tray and plastic wrapper but twenty seconds later I'm all paid up and out the door so it does'nt last long!
I think putting packaging in trolleys is a little different though and not something I'd encourage as all too often this stuff gets blown away or ends up littering the streets.

oldMcDonald

gromituk wrote: »

If they cared about excess packaging, the rubbish would not be in carrier bags!

You know, you may just have a valid point there

Ken68

Had a discussion with someone in Sainsbury yesterday.
I pointed out how green it would be to make fruit boxes available instead of them being flattened. I don't think he knew what I was talking about.
Lidl are quite good at having no excess packing. Saw the toothpaste tubes as mentioned by another poster. Had to get rid of couch mixture box tho, instructions printed on bottle and outer packet and seperate slip.
Have scissors and knife in boot now to make de-packaging easier.

ashfan83

In Germany they have been charging for carrier bags for years, as have people been leaving stupid excess packaging there in the supermarket. They also pay a deposit on cans and bottles. It's about time our country caught up!

gromituk

When I was in Sweden there were people picking up bottles after a festival, to take them back and retrieve the deposit. Put deposits on things and rubbish becomes valuable.

Debt_Free_Chick

ashfan83 wrote: »

In Germany they have been charging for carrier bags for years, as have people been leaving stupid excess packaging there in the supermarket. They also pay a deposit on cans and bottles. It's about time our country caught up!

But have these actions actually reduced the amount of packaging "in circulation"?

Leaving the packaging at the checkout seems to achieve little, IMHO, other than increasing rubbish. Even if it's recycled, recycling is the "last resort".

The preferred solution is for stuff to be sold with less packaging - or none at all, where possible (e.g. fruit & veg). The only way to achieve this is to boycott the purchase of packaged fruit & veg - reduce the demand and it won't be supplied. It's the buying of it that maintains the supply, to satisfy the consumers' demands.

Just stop buying packaged goods and start with fruit & veg. The easiest way to achieve this is to stop buying fruit & veg in the supermarket. As always, there's a compromise to being green as you are likely to have to "make an effort" to find an alternative supply of fruit & veg.