The War against plastic waste

euronorris

On the subject of food waste, I watched an episode of eat well for less recently that left me flabbergasted. It’s estimated that just under 2 million tonnes of food gets wasted before it even reaches our supermarket shelves!! Doesn't. Even. Get. To. The. Supermarket! Wasted! A company called FareShare is working to tackle it.


I hadn't realised that teabags were plasticised! This article shows that it's not all teabags https://moralfibres.co.uk/is-there-plastic-in-your-tea/ Even so, this thread has inspired me to switch to loose leaf tea (which I can refill at the zero waste shop), and use a stainless steel tea infuser (can be bought inexpensively from Sainsburys, or a £1 in Ikea if you are near one).


I really need to work on my Dr Pepper addiction! A fair chunk of my recycling is from the tin cans or empty 2 litre bottles! Eek!

maryb

I bought a Guppyfriend bag and used it to wash various artificial fibre items, including a fleece. I could not see any fibres trapped in it after several washes so I don't know if that means my clothes weren't shedding that badly after all or if the fibres were too fine even for the bag - though the makers say it traps over 90%

It is hard to find clothes that don't contain any plastic. I know cotton can be ecological nightmare but I buy most of my undies and tees from Marks which now says all of its cotton is sustainable and I wear them to death

Proper lyocell uses a closed loop system of manufacturing so although it involves some very nasty chemicals they are recaptured and reused. However, non branded viscose from the Far East is not so good in that respect and the chemicals from manufacture and dying of fabrics for cheap clothes are a big source of pollution

All the politicians are quick to trumpet how the UK has slashed its carbon emissions. What they don't say is it's because we have effectively outsourced them by getting all our consumer goods from the Far East. And no country has to account for the emissions involved in shipping all that tat halfway round the globe. It's a source of wry amusement to me that my DD2 is so politically correct yet so happy to buy more and more cute clothes whereas I looked at doing Project 333 and ended up thinking why is this considered hard?

dreaming

greenbee wrote: »

To jwil's point, you can always say there is more that could be done elsewhere that has a bigger impact in a different way. The plastic issue isn't just about carbon - in fact mostly it wasn't about carbon but about the issue of plastic fibres in the food chain, air and water. There are other issues around some of the chemicals in plastics leaching into our food which weren't addressed, but there is only so much information that people can cope with at a time.

There are lots of posts on the twitter threads about plastics saying 'become a vegan, that's more important'. But what is actually important is everyone doing something - whether it's using less plastic, eating less meat, generating less food waste or throwing out fewer clothes. One people develop one good habit they tend to develop others.

I've been low-plastic for years, and struggled at times. I also try to buy local and organic food, avoid a huge range of chemicals in toiletries and cleaning products, and tend not to buy new if I can find something second-hand. As far as clothes go, I buy what I need and wear it until I get objections

Buying plastic-free helps me avoid food waste. I only buy what I actually need, so its rare that I throw anything away.

Anything that anyone is doing to reduce their environmental impact should be applauded and encouraged. Telling people there's no point doing A because of B might stop someone making that first step to an overall change in lifestyle. So let's all try to find ways to encourage and support each other. Otherwise we might as well not bother ... after all, I'll probably be dead before the real environmental impact starts to hit.

Totally agree with this. I think it can be a bit overwhelming when trying to find one's way through the vast amount of data when trying to make an informed decision. That is why I have decided to take small steps to begin with. Like the residents on the programme I too have cupboards full of plastic bottles - shampoo/conditioner/shower gel/cleaning products etc. When each one is finished I am going to try to find alternatives. I have (nearly) always used my own shopping bags, and I have made much more efforts not to buy plastic wrapped food items. Then, as the new actions become "habits", I move on to another area of life to look at.

However, I can totally understand (though not necessarily agree with) how people can feel that their small changes can't make much difference so what's the point? I think programmes such as The War on Waste do go some way to highlighting how we can start to get to grips with the problems but as I have mentioned in a previous post we (government. manufacturers, suppliers, retailers, and consumers) should all be getting together to try to solve the problems. I do feel that many of these type of programmes are unnecessarily confrontational. I know the argument will be that this might be needed to make people/companies "sit up and take notice" but I do think it can also lead to them digging their heels in to defend their positions.

happydays89

I know they are introducing machines that you can put your plastic bottles in and you receive a voucher off your shopping ,but they have to have a barcode,if you buy a multi pack of can or bottles it’s the outer wrapper that has the barcode not the individual bottles.Which will mean they can’t go in the machine.

jwil

greenbee wrote: »

There was also a thread on here about it somewhere. I think it's probably still going.

To jwil's point, you can always say there is more that could be done elsewhere that has a bigger impact in a different way. The plastic issue isn't just about carbon - in fact mostly it wasn't about carbon but about the issue of plastic fibres in the food chain, air and water. There are other issues around some of the chemicals in plastics leaching into our food which weren't addressed, but there is only so much information that people can cope with at a time.

There are lots of posts on the twitter threads about plastics saying 'become a vegan, that's more important'. But what is actually important is everyone doing something - whether it's using less plastic, eating less meat, generating less food waste or throwing out fewer clothes. One people develop one good habit they tend to develop others.

I've been low-plastic for years, and struggled at times. I also try to buy local and organic food, avoid a huge range of chemicals in toiletries and cleaning products, and tend not to buy new if I can find something second-hand. As far as clothes go, I buy what I need and wear it until I get objections

Buying plastic-free helps me avoid food waste. I only buy what I actually need, so its rare that I throw anything away.

Anything that anyone is doing to reduce their environmental impact should be applauded and encouraged. Telling people there's no point doing A because of B might stop someone making that first step to an overall change in lifestyle. So let's all try to find ways to encourage and support each other. Otherwise we might as well not bother ... after all, I'll probably be dead before the real environmental impact starts to hit.

I don't disagree, but to focus on one issue above everything else means that we could get ourselves into a solution where the 'cure' is worse than the issue.

A few years ago we were all told to recycle our plastic bottles because they can be made into fleeces - now we find out that these fleeces are shedding billions of microfibers into the air and ocean.

We were told to buy diesel cars as they were better for the environment, now they are more polluting and causing us health issues.

Going plastic free on fruit and veg might help some of us reduce our food waste as individuals (but that will increase for others as things don't last so long) but what if it means that 3 times the amount is thrown away before it even gets to our homes. There are other plastic issues that could also have been highlighted but weren't touched on (balloons, excess packaging on non-food items such as toys) - or how we can help reduce the chance of our recycling being dumped by making sure we recycle the correct items.

I agree that small steps should be celebrated, but I equally think we should highlight what small steps would be most effective.

jwil

Mummy2cheekymonkeys wrote: »

There was a war on waste programme a couple of years ago with Hugh and they did speak about food waste on it. It was quite good and they had a website set up to go with it which had recipes and ideas on. It was quite disappointing to see the website no longer available after about a year of the programme ending. I'm a huge fan of hughs and think he is highlighting a very important problem but as with most things it seems like with these programmes it is just trying to get viewing figures on what ever the current hot topic is. As soon as something else comes along everyone will jump on that band wagon.

I think that is what makes it even more disappointing - he knows the issues around food waste - I remember the programme.

cbsexec

I think my main contribution to this is to actually buy less "stuff". That is a big problem as we all have too much "stuff" in our homes (mainly plastic i expect), too many clothes that we never wear, too many toys that are never played with, too much food that is never eaten. By making our lives and homes simpler we will be cutting down on packaging etc in an easily achievable way. I am trying hard to do this and encourage members of my family to do so to. I am also working hard on reusing and recycling.

[Deleted User]

My local Dobbies are doing a huge bag of soap nuts for around £12.99

jwil

cbsexec wrote: »

I think my main contribution to this is to actually buy less "stuff". That is a big problem as we all have too much "stuff" in our homes (mainly plastic i expect), too many clothes that we never wear, too many toys that are never played with, too much food that is never eaten. By making our lives and homes simpler we will be cutting down on packaging etc in an easily achievable way. I am trying hard to do this and encourage members of my family to do so to. I am also working hard on reusing and recycling.

I completely agree that this will have the biggest impact of everything we do!

never_too_old

euronorris wrote: »

On the subject of food waste, I watched an episode of eat well for less recently that left me flabbergasted. It’s estimated that just under 2 million tonnes of food gets wasted before it even reaches our supermarket shelves!! Doesn't. Even. Get. To. The. Supermarket! Wasted! A company called FareShare is working to tackle it.


I hadn't realised that teabags were plasticised! This article shows that it's not all teabags https://moralfibres.co.uk/is-there-plastic-in-your-tea/ Even so, this thread has inspired me to switch to loose leaf tea (which I can refill at the zero waste shop), and use a stainless steel tea infuser (can be bought inexpensively from Sainsburys, or a £1 in Ikea if you are near one).

Hi i recently purchased some loose tea and one of the little infuser balls and the leaves came out of the holes:(
I also phoned Yorkshire tea to enquiry about the plastic in teabags,If you buy the big boxes the bags are completely biodegradable if you buy the small boxes the bags contain plastic. Doesnt make sense.