Zero Waste

Primrose

Happy to join you. I use the plastic containers which supermarkets sell tomatoes & grapes in for seed trays for my vegetables. My main gripe is the HUGE amount of plastic containers wasted in this country for selling milk, I can't believe that the supermarkets can't get together with the dairy farmers and devise some way of them taking bulk milk deliveries so that we can simply wash out our plastic bottles, take them to the supermarket and refill them.

bigpaws23

I'm on board with this too
Can I ask the person who talked about taking containers to the butchers / fishmongers something please? I've been thinking about doing this too, but I thought they might say no due to health and safety or some other such bull****
I take it you've had no problems?

How does this actually work - say you buy a chicken, half a dozen sausages and 6 slices of cooked meat - do you take three containers with you or do you pile it into one? Do they weigh your container and then put the meat into it? Do you take just a regular tupperware type container or something else?
I'd love to hear more about your experiences. (especially as the last chicken I bought from the Co-Op on a plastic tray and in shrink wrap leaked anyway, into a cotton bag

Today, in our local shop, the assistant got most huffy with us when we refused a plastic carrier bag - she just didn't get it *at all* when we explained (very politely) why we didn't want one.
I thought they would be pleased to save the 0.003 pence on the bag, but she seemed to take it as a personal rejection.

Ho hum.

So, my next nosey question to those who haven't answered is how many are in your household and how much rubbish do you put out each week?
We're two adults and a seven year old (with an adult appetite) and a cat. We've been putting out 1 dustbin full a week (regular old fashioned dustbin, not wheelie bin) and my goal is to get it down to 1 carrier bag (oh the irony) a week.

I'm giving myself a couple of months to do it because I'll need to make some different choices in the shops.

Great thread - thank you OP!

Bigpaws x

geordie_joe

bigpaws23 wrote: »

Today, in our local shop, the assistant got most huffy with us when we refused a plastic carrier bag - she just didn't get it *at all* when we explained (very politely) why we didn't want one.
I thought they would be pleased to save the 0.003 pence on the bag, but she seemed to take it as a personal rejection.

That's probably because her (or his) boss has told them to give out a carrier bag. There is a saying that "the customer is always right" but some get confused when the customer conflicts with what their boss has told them to do.

I find a lot of small shops give out carrier bags for only two reason, advertising and security.

Giving you a carrier bag means that you are advertising the shop on the way home. It also serves as a shop lifting deterrent. If you are walking out of the shop with a dress in a new shop carrier bag you must have paid for it at the till. If you are walking out of the shop with the dress in your own bag you may have nicked it.

All we have to do is get the government to ban advertising on carrier bags and tell the shops that the shoplifters are bring their own carrier bags into the shop. They just buy something then use the carrier bag to remove their stolen good the next day!

Primrose

There's another reason for some stores issuing a carrier bag. In areas where there are high levels of anti-social behaviour by youths, often caused by drunken behaviour and under-age drinking, a lot of licensing authorities are now imposing additional restrictions as part of the granting of a license, including insisting that any stores with an alcohol license must sell it in identifiable wrappers so that that the point of origin can be identified if an under-age person is caught in possession of alcohol. This may not have applied in the previous poster's case, but often does now apply when alcohol is being purchased.

geordie_joe

Thanks Primrose, I didn't know that but it makes sense now I do.

pmorrisjones

There are 2 adults and 2 children in our household (well children are nearly adults - or I suppose technically one is - they are 18 and 16). We put out one blackbagful. That is unless my hubby is sorting out shed. Never sure where rubbish comes from in shed. We recycle everything we can. No incentive to reduce bags as we have to put all rubbish in black plastic or they won't take it. This was the first time I complained to council (had bins before), to no avail. Still be better to put out SMALL black bag, or combine ours with next doors. The recycling scheme is good around here though. Wish they would take Tetrapaks (can't afford orange juice in plastic or bottles). Also, wish Morrisons took plastic wrapping like Sainsburys (our nearest Sainsbrys is 35 miles away) - in with plastic bags. Still we are lucky compared to others.

flutterbyuk25

Hey all

Very interesting thread this.

I'm 26 and live with my parents. We recycle almost everything so have very little waste - less than half of a binbag full per week.

Local council collects glass/tin cans/paper. The next village over from us has tetrapak recycling box with all the other usual ones in the community centre car park. The main dump collects all plastic/wood/cardboard etc so we store up everything and take it over periodically, luckily it's on the way to my work so don't need to make a special journey to do this.

We also have compost heap and wormery for all the scraps/veg waste. 3 cats get some scraps too. Also we put any stale or left over (un-useable again) food out for birds/hedgehogs to eat.

The main thing I put in the rubbish is used tissues, cos I have a few allergies so blow my nose a lot! Can't think of another (hygenic) way to dispose of them.

In relation to the milk threads, I've just come back from holiday to Canada. Over there they have milk in a bag, albeit a plastic bag. You buy a one-off purchase of a jug with the bag in it, then just buy the milk in plastic bags when needed and put the bag in the jug and chop the corner off. Great idea, bags can be recycled and take up way less space than plastic bottle would. Also, in Canada every rubbish bin on the street has 3 sections - plastic & cans, paper & cardboard, and rubbish. So you can easily recycle your plastic bottle on the go etc! and they have deposits on glass bottles/cans for alcohols. So much further ahead there than we are!

x

C_Ronaldo

You talk about using the milkman for milk but we've found the price of milk from the milkman is expensive than buying it frm a supermarkte down the road plus he doenst come all that early so when he were to deliver the milk it would be stood outside in the heat which would make it go off,

A_fiend_for_life

I'm in on this.

Surely bottles and jars should be standardised according to volume and shape that way they could be reused by any manufacturer.

Real Ale Breweries should look at this as they already use very much similar shapes and there are probably more breweries than post offices in the uk these days so the wouldn't beed to be carted that far either.

flutterbyuk25 wrote: »

The main thing I put in the rubbish is used tissues, cos I have a few allergies so blow my nose a lot! Can't think of another (hygenic) way to dispose of them.

Have you tried cotton hankies? It should save you a fortune in a year. I am always suffering a runny nose at work and on the train presumably because of the air 'conditioning'. I usually use two in a day. You do get some strange looks with them though!?

fenrow1

Hi Can I join in too - I recycle as much as possible - clothes etc into charity shops,(any old jumpers are undone and my nan knits hats / scarfs / gloves for the Christmas chartiy boxes via samaritans purse, paper, cans and glass are collected by the council as well as green bins ( question on green bins - it says no kitchen waste does that include un cooked potatoe/ carrot peelings etc.) Cardboard/ metal / plasic milk container / tetra pak / wood is recycled at our local tip although have yet to find out how to recyle the plastic yoghurt pots/fruit containers/margarine pots etc anyone know most of them say recyclable but there is always a sign saying no thanks at the recycling areas at the tip. Egg shells are good anti slug devices and tea bags go in the compost bin at my parents. Alot of my waste water from washing up etc waters my plants during the summer and I am in on a couple of magazine reading circles I always pas on to someone else or to a doctor / dentist or garage waiting room (especially garages as all they seem to have when I go to get stuff done to my car is mens mags!) I also do car boots for other stuff I need to get rid of any thing left goes to one of the charity carbooters there at the end of the day so I always leave empty.

Always looking for new ideas

Fen