In many cases buying fruit & veg in plastic packaging is cheaper than the same loose

MrsPear wrote: »

Can someone please explain what veg with it is own natural wrapper needs to shrink wrapped? I am thinking cucumbers, swede and celeriac to name a few.

"a wrapped cucumber lasts more than three times as long as an unwrapped one"

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/a-lesson-in-packaging-myths-is-shrink-wrap-on-a-cucumber-really-mindless-waste-8340812.html

Wrapping food in plastic is usually done to extend the shelf life. It reduces food waste. It also prevents you having to go to the shops two or three times a week.

The main problem with plastic is the way it is disposed of.

And much of the plastic in the ocean comes from countries who simply throw their waste into rivers.

molerat wrote: »

Bananas seem to be the only fruit / veg that is cheaper loose.

If only it were that simple. Looking on the Tesco web site, loose baking potatoes are currently £1.10/kg. A pack of 4 wrapped are £1.43/kg. But a 2.5kg bag is only £0.80/kg.

The trouble is, I don't need 2.5kg of potatoes. They will have sprouted before I have eaten most of them.

I_Love_comps wrote: »

... the supermarkets should start supplying paper bags to put your loose items into, as the bags are plastic that they supply.

Why? Plastic bags use less energy to produce and distribute than paper bags.

Plastic packaging has I believe become very popular because it allows for many things that benefit retailers and consumers. Choice is one of them, it would be challenging to offer multiple varieties of apples at different prices if they were all sold loose. How does the cashier know which is which? There's also the speed of shelf filling - which relates to how much our shopping bill comes to. Packaging items as units also allows for better stock keeping, reducing wastage (also impacts our shopping bill) and makes it easier to stock items more reliably, so you don't turn up and they are often out of items you want. There are good and bad sides to packaging, I don't believe it's simply a needless habit supermarkets just started doing. It has its purpose.

In general, the packaging on fruit and vegetables is much less than that on ready-made foods, often it's just a thin plastic film. Soft fruit comes in boxes, but they're pretty light things. None of it adds up to much. With its modest environmental impact, saving a few grams of plastic a week isn't a big deal to me, so I wouldn't want to give up much to do it. I've cut weekly waste down dramatically anyway - and largely by switching to products in lightweight plastic packaging. Coffee refill bags instead of glass jars, detergent refill bags rather than a new bottle every time.

I feel the idea might all be a response to consumer pressure - which is often coming from assumptions that plastic is a highly destructive material rather than a resource efficient way to do useful things. As long as you're not throwing your plastic waste in the river or sea, using lightweight, low resource consuming plastics is I believe the greener option compared to paper, glass or metal alternatives. If you're living in Europe, or the US and properly disposing of your rubbish in the waste collection, then there's not much reason to skip plastics - you're not the origin of the ocean plastic problem:

https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/891361/Plastic-waste-pollution-90-per-cent-rivers-India-China-Africa

I had words with Waitrose last year, both in store and on the phone with customer service because of the discrepancy in prices of loose versus packaged potatoes. Exactly the same variety cost nearly double when loose - £1.75 per kg loose and 90p per kg pre packed. I was told that it is what all the supermarkets do. I now buy my spuds from the local greengrocer for £1.20 per kg and I can buy the amount and size that I want. Offers on fruit and veg in supermarkets are always on prepackaged items, never loose.