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katiepants wrote: »Going back to doorstep milk in glass bottles would be an easy first step.
Not for those who don't have an accessible doorstep (student halls/ apartments/ HMOs etc). A quarter of all households are single person now, many couples and young families live in such accommodation too. I doubt it would be economic to deliver milk to the many households in rural areas either.
Easy for suburbanites perhaps, if a choice of morning or evening delivery was offered. Otherwise frozen milk in Winter and sour milk in Summer. _pale_
Maybe the roles of the milkman and the postman could be combined.Declutterbug-in-progress.⭐️⭐️⭐️ ⭐️⭐️0 -
firebubble wrote: »Why not write to the NT and ask them to ditch the outer wrapper entirely, as other companies such as Boden have? The address is printed on the magazine and it goes through the post loose without any problems.
Or even better, ask the NT to create the magazine online so you can opt out of receiving a hard copy and save all the polluting inks and paper waste entirely, as well as the fuel to transport it and the plastic it's no doubt swathed in on pallets at the printers. There is really no need for anyone to receive brochures as the info is always online.
Reducing what we acquire to only the very necessary is, I've found, the best step.
Unfortunately the NT, like many other organisations use these mailings to enclose other materials like local supplements and other advertising flyers.0 -
Not for those who don't have an accessible doorstep (student halls/ apartments/ HMOs etc). A quarter of all households are single person now, many couples and young families live in such accommodation too. I doubt it would be economic to deliver milk to the many households in rural areas either.
Easy for suburbanites perhaps, if a choice of morning or evening delivery was offered. Otherwise frozen milk in Winter and sour milk in Summer. _pale_
Maybe the roles of the milkman and the postman could be combined.
We still have a rural milk round near us. It is delivered along with the newpapers and other items such as orange juice and yoghurt (from a local farm)0 -
But thats only if you want to be a bit hipster about it
I have never been called hipster before:rotfl:
I have no desire to have milk delivered. We buy milk along with our weekly shopping, so having a separate process for purchasing milk is just not necessary. I would buy glass bottles if they were available in my local stores.0 -
A couple of magazines-W.I.Life and the B.M.C. magazine do come in the compostable bags now. It's a start and perhaps other organisations will follow their example.
We used to have a doorstep delivery of milk from a local dairy but they got taken over by a larger firm and deliveries used to come after I'd left the house in the morning so we started buying milk from the supermarket.
I did buy some stainless steel straws last year but haven't used them yet. Every now and then DH's back goes and he finds it hard to sit up properly so has to use a straw when he has a drink.0 -
...I did buy some stainless steel straws last year but haven't used them yet. Every now and then DH's back goes and he finds it hard to sit up properly so has to use a straw when he has a drink.
Off topic.
I have a really bad back (fused bones and prolapsed discs) so when mine goes out fully I cannot even get out of bed.
I have one of these drinks bottle:
Not the cheapest (you can usually get them on sale if you don't mind the colour). But you cannot spill the drink and you can control the flow of liquid too. Beware they keep hot drinks warm for a very long time so you may need to add a splash of cold to the drink. Also good at keeping drinks cold too.
I have found them to be much better than a straw.0 -
I've recently gone back to using the milkman (I'd been meaning to for ages) as my erratic work lifestyle with a lot of travel means shopping can be difficult. The milkman is one of the services that will leave food unattended on the doorstep. Milk & juice are left in a polystyrene cooler, and I leave a cold back out in the same crate for yogurt etc if I'm expecting to leave before he delivers (6.30am) or not getting back from a trip until late.
Milk, juice and yogurt now come in glass bottles/jars. Veg is in string bags. Cucumbers are sadly still plastic wrapped, and bananas are in plastic bubble wrap. But the contents of my recycling and ordinary bins has definitely reduced.
RHS members magazine comes in a paper wrapper, which is much more sensible than 'compostable' plastics (at least until there is an agreed recycling option for them). We don't have food waste collections here which is a huge source of frustration. Apparently kerbside glass is next on the priority list, despite having a bottle bank in the village.
Keeping out of supermarkets seems to be the best way to avoid plastic. My local farm shop uses paper bags for veg, and says you can take your own containers for meat & deli counters so I may try that. We have no 'zero waste' shops locally, which would be my preference for refilling pulses, grains, nuts, dried fruit etc. Sometimes I can get paper-wrapped (e.g. porridge oats, muesli) but otherwise I just end up getting the largest pack to minimise waste.0 -
If you're worried about the environment, it doesn't really matter HOW you get your milk - the fact that you're drinking it at all is the issue. Cows produce a lot of polluting gases like methane. If you switched to a non dairy alternative you'd be making a much bigger impact than anything mentioned thus far.1
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This thread is about plastic waste - most plant milks come in tetrapaks so don't solve that problem, unless you make your own or don't use them at all.
It's better that everyone does something - we could all say that our individual contribution makes no difference, so let's not bother. Telling people that their efforts aren't worthwhile is unproductive. Suggesting ways that they can reduce plastic waste would have been supportive and helpful, and who knows what steps they would have taken next. Being dismissive of their efforts and attempting to evangelise a major lifestyle change unrelated to the topic is likely to alienate them.
So what positive suggestions can you make about how we can reduce plastic waste?3 -
I could mention that most plastic in the ocean comes from fishing, not from consumer waste so stopping eating fish and supporting that industry would be best - but then you'd just tell me I was being unhelpful.
I'm sorry you don't like the facts. Doesn't change them.1
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