Travelling On

teapot2

Noella wrote: »

Check if they deliver out your way, teapot2. I was surprised to see a Waitrose van in our road occasionally although our nearest store is just under 40 miles away. I checked our postcode on the website and see that they would deliver here but only on a specific day once a week.

Thanks but unfortunately they don't deliver here and neither do Morries

teapot2

Most unusually its been a lovely day here with no rain :cool:

Karmacat

Afternoon all! I had to go to the routine medical thingy I postponed before the Essex holiday - it gave me a nightmare morning, I'm afraid. Woman who dealt with me was aggressive, and buses to the town I had to go to were completely up the spout because of the flooding, I think. I've had a proper lunch now (and saw 3 cats on my walk home from the rail sttion ) so I'm good now.

apple_muncher wrote: »

Bet you are glad you went off on your jaunt last week and not this!

I certainly am! What a nightmare to be away in this, even in a caravan, let alone a tent.

Anyway, this afternoon, the main focus is my grocery shop delivery in 1 - 2 hours, then preparing for the tiling man tomorrow. If I can manage to get the cut grass and weeds into the green bin, that would be great.

Just watched the taped programme on plastic waste by Michael Mosley and Anita Rani ... oh my word. I have a supermarket bag of waste each week, and its all food wrapping - cheese, dried beans, pasta, that sort of thing. The glass, paper and whatever plastic I can manage go in the recycling, but really ... I'm sure my recycling is part of those problematic moutains that are appearing in developing countries, of Western plastic recycling I'm going to try harder. I wonder if Sainsbo or Waitrose sell unwrapped feta on their deli counters (and how much more expensive is it than the wrapped version?).

I bought some fresh sweet potato at a big Tesco's in the other town - astonishingly cheap per kilo, 97p! But it came wrapped in a plastic bag. I'm just at the start of this particular part of the green journey.

[Deleted User]

The whole unnecessary plastic wrappings 'thing' is a total nightmare isn't it? I think so many of us know we should try to minimise plastic use and indeed we try our best but we seem to be beset by problems on all sides:mad:


Since I read your last post I've been musing on how stores could offer such foodstuffs as feta without using some form of plastic wrap, given that feta is a 'wet' cheese. Even if they use greaseproof paper to wrap it in we might need an outer plastic bag to put that in. Or should we be taking our own small plastic food bags with us? Either way, we're still using a plastic bag for it whether we supply it or the shop does.


Morrisons now offer strong paper carrier bags at the checkouts but they are still optional. When DH called in there last week (on a whim and didn't have his bag for life folded up in his pocket:doh:) they asked him which type he wanted. He opted for the paper one but the charge was the same.

themadvix

Not seen the programme (and probably won't as I'm aware of the issues and more exposure just tends to make me more and more depressed about it all), but dairy is one of the biggest issues for me in terms of plastic wrapping. I have milk from the milkman in glass, but butter and wet cheeses (mozzarella mainly here) are the big issues. We should take our own containers Noella - most of the supermarkets are okay with this now (and I've been doing it since people looked at me as if I had two heads and then proceeded to wrap the cheese and put it in the container), but I'm pretty sure none of the shops has yet figured out how to do wet/soft cheeses not in plastic.

Paper bags unfortunately have greater carbon emissions attached to their production than plastic ones despite the fact they will degrade, so the answer is always take your own.

It is so difficult to find the right answer, no matter how hard you try sometimes! (According to a statistic on a carbon-offsetting website I read the other day, to live sustainably, no one person should be responsible for more than 0.6 tonnes of CO2 per year..... I don't know what my footprint is, but it's sure as h*ll more than that )

Can you see why the programme might depress me? Sorry for the doom and gloom folks!

Karmacat

Hi madvix - I welcome the input, absolutely. I don't watch wildlife programmes because I find them too upsetting (and I've been veggie for a million years anyway), and I also consider myself green, but I've realised my shopping is very mainstream, I have to say, so I need knowledge about it.

Anita did show a section where people took their own containers along to a supermarket - if my local Sainsbo or Waitrose do that, I'll definitely take part.

Actually, the first thing I can do, from my armchair no less, is get the updated list of what my local authority will accept for recycling (as opposed to what they *will* recycle ) because I've heard something about the metal lids on jam jars being accepted now.

Deliveryman has been - poor guy got soaked repeatedly yesterday, and though it still looks stormy right now, it hasn't rained all day.

themadvix

We can certainly put jam jar lids and crown caps in our recycling (reserving judgement on what happens to them). Yes, Waitrose and Sainsbury's will both accept own containers - I've been inflicting this on WR for years and their 'the customer is always right' attitude means they'll do it, although they use a single-use piece of plastic to serve/touch the product, so less plastic, rather than plastic-free. Sainsbury's have been very slow, but they did have a proper sign on the counter the other day when I went in and the lady was very happy (at last!) to put it in my container. Morrisons are supposedly very good (anecdotal evidence to the contrary, but dealt with by management fine). Asda couldn't do it the last time I asked, although the guy was apologetic and understood why I was asking. Not sure about Tescos as I only ever go under duress, but think they were okay when I did ask - which was a fair while ago, before it was the new normal.

Sorry, you didn't ask for a treatise, but hopefully it'll help someone.

Karmacat

:j:j:j thank you!

earthgirl

I'm also at the beginning of the recycling /using less plastic journey. It is depressing that most things are so plastic wrapped.

The NT house with family connections sounds amazing!!

teapot2

We have a shop in the high street that sells great fruit and veg and has loose grains, pasta and all sorts of goodies where you can take in your own container and just buy as much or little as you want. They will also split a bunch of herbs if you don't want the whole thing which is handy. They sell shampoo, household stuff, liquid soap etc in containers they will refill. I really like the shop and they way they operate BUT it far more expensive than all the supermarkets so at the moment I sadly can't afford to do my weekly shopping there tho I hope that might be possible at some point.