Too much packaging

[getthegat]

Why does everything we buy need so much packaging? It's just me, the good lady and Sophster the hound in our house and yet we have a pink bag, a black bag, a plastic box with cardboard.... where the heck does it all come from and more to the point, where does it all go. Such a waste. (Read this next bit in country Somerset accent) When I were a laad, there were nooo plaastic bags. Mothers carried shoppin baasgits, stuff were put in paper baaags, or cardboard boxies for bigger loads. ( Out of country mode now) Packaging was all disposable and degradable then. I sometimes hate this modern throw away world. The rubbish on the streets, sides of our roads, even in our fields where we shoot, blown by the wind or dropped by ..... well those that seem to think it's not their problem, someone else will clear it up. Is it the dreaded "time" that we all seem to have too little of? Again, as kids we were taught from an early age not to drop litter, to take it home and when possible, burn it. Plastic is getting everywhere and is in the food chain now.........

[loriusgarrulus]

Part of the dropping litter is lack of training. From an early age I taught my Children that if you can carry it there full you can carry it back empty. My Grandchildren have been taught the same. They don't drop chewing gum either.

[Lord Geordie]

Yes! The waxed brown paper bag shopping of yesteryear was preferable in more way than one! Back then you got to choose the apples or potatoes before putting them in the bag! Food didn't sweat in the paper bags either! When done you could pop them on the coal fire. No waste. Egg cartons were refilled when we went to the grocers. Not thrown in the bin! 

[getthegat]

Exactly. I bought 4 potatoes this evening, I only wanted 2, they were in a plastic wrapper on a plastic tray, I was asked if I wanted a bag to carry them home!

[Lord Geordie]

I remember carrying potatoes home 1.5 mile in a 55lb sack. Eggs came on a huge compressed cardboard tray, veg and fruit in paper bags, meats in waxed papers, even when your bought underwear it went in a paper bag with a little bit of tape to hold it closed. Everybody took their OWN shopping bags! When you look, even shoes today are plastic and cheap by design to throw away rather than repair. I still prefer real leather shoes as my feet don't do well in plastic. On the plus side I see MANY new ideas to recycle plastics such as park benches, fence posts and pailings, bollards etc. I think they ought to use recycled plastics for bins and some car plastics too. Even if you can use it for furniture with a thin veneer of wood to hide it! Some countries are using it to make housing. I wonder if it would be any good for boat hulls? Toys even perhaps. But certainly the production of could do with huge cuts! And either an alternative sought, or return to the old system we used to have! Glass bottles, paper bags, wooden toothbrushes etc.

[getthegat]

Waste usage is getting better, our local tip proudly displays it's monthly tonnage recycled. My uncle had a little country village shop when I was small, he sold cheese off a huge wheel (cut what you needed) and sliced bacon to order. I'm sure some things would not meet hygiene regs these days, and there's another subject for discussion, I don't remember anybody getting food poisoning, immune systems were good. I was in a secondary school in the 60s, of nearly 500 kids, we had rubbish bins and everyone used them religiously, and there was only 1 over weight girl in the whole school and that was due to glands. One of my shoots is beside a very busy rat run and the rubbish that people chuck out of cars is discusting.

Edited December 3, 2017 by getthegat
Incorrect spelling

[guzzicat]

+Things new that come in shrink fit plastic you need a tool kit to get into,worst bit of littering I saw by the roadside recently was a full disposable nappy thrown from a vehicle & Mc D&KFC boxes as you approach/ leave the area of these outlets. People have no pride now.

[TIGHTCHOKE]

The big supermarkets will tell you that the customer wants all this damned packaging and that they give the customer what they want! 

I am one customer who does not want it!

Someone did attempt to take all the packaging back to a supermarket some years ago so that it could be re-cycled. Unfortunately the supermarket in question decided there would be a cost to that approach.

I shop in Morrison's, Tesco, Lidl and Aldi, I get far less packaging to place in the re-cycling bin from the latter two.

[Bigbob]

There's too much of everything these days and to compensate the council now have given us more bins with the landfill being half the size of the other three forcing you to recycle , i've stopped buying papers now so there room in the paper one but come xmas its going to be a month before all the paper and surplus wrappings are away , i toying with the idea of buying a incinerator  and burning most things including the the dog and ferret  **** 

[Me matt]

75% of my Amazon packages are shockingly over packed... 

I ordered some wire fishing traces, 75 of them..... came in a box the same size as a shoe box.

I burn as much waste as I can, firstly because I love setting fire to stuff and secondly- because we did try leaving it out for the council but the morons they employ couldn't do the job without making a mess. 

[Hendrix's rifle]

37 minutes ago, Bigbob said:

There's too much of everything these days and to compensate the council now have given us more bins with the landfill being half the size of the other three forcing you to recycle , i've stopped buying papers now so there room in the paper one but come xmas its going to be a month before all the paper and surplus wrappings are away , i toying with the idea of buying a incinerator  and burning most things including the the dog and ferret  **** 

I bought a steel dustbin with a little hole in the lid, cost a few quid and gets used a lot! Makes life easier. Lighter fluid, light it and put the lid on And walk away 

[getthegat]

Well said. Consumers getting what they want, I've been around 61 years now and have never met anyone who was asked "what they want". It's like the straight cucumbers or certain size and colour tomatoes etc. It will all boil down to money and how much more the fat cat supermarkets can make out of us. We have an incinerator and I know it's not possible for everyone to have one and somebody will shout "global warming" or you'll find you're in a smokeless area. Goodness knows where we'll be with all this in the future.

[sandspider]

Some people are leaving the excess packaging at the supermarket, to make them realise we don't want it, and also to make it their problem. Doubt much will come of it and don't always have time to do it anyway.

[das]

Got a handlamp from Amazon yesterday, came in a box you could have put 4 handlamps in it.
Packed out with 27' (yes 27') of twisted new paper.
Not really bothered but it does seem an awful waste of wood!

[figgy]

I do get sick of the pointless packaging. 

As for litter I will throw away certain items like food, if I’ve eaten a sandwich and it has some dry crusts I’ll throw it for birds to eat same with fruit cores. Litter goes in the bin. 

[getthegat]

Did anyone see the last Blue Planet? Awful how plastic is getting into the oceans and killing fish and animals and getting into the food chain. Surely it just means dropping plastic from products that don't need it and going over to paper or some other degradable non toxic products. Can it be that hard if the world as a whole really cares or is it about money as always. Watch this space kids, your future is on the line.......

Edited December 11, 2017 by getthegat
Added words

[JohnfromUK]

If you have re-usable bags (as I do, and non plastic ones as well), you are now instructed that they should be washed (at a high temperature) every few uses - or they will harbour germs and spread them round the supermarket.  So you save a small amount on a plastic bag - and use more carbon/energy on washing them .......

You can't win!

Edited December 11, 2017 by JohnfromUK

[loriusgarrulus]

 

8 minutes ago, JohnfromUK said:

If you have re-usable bags (as I do, and non plastic ones as well), you are now instructed that they should be washed (at a high temperature) every few uses - or they will harbour germs and spread them round the supermarket.  So you save a small amount on a plastic bag - and use more carbon/energy on washing them .......

You can't win!

I leave my shopping bags in the car and wheel the shopping trolley out to the car and pack it into bags at the car. Its speedier  through the checkout that way.

[sishyplops]

so you pack it in the trolly, unpack it at the checkout, pack it back into the trolley, unpack it at the car and pack in into bags...............ok

[JohnfromUK]

37 minutes ago, loriusgarrulus said:

 

I leave my shopping bags in the car and wheel the shopping trolley out to the car and pack it into bags at the car. Its speedier  through the checkout that way.

I reckon I can get it in my bags as fast as they check it out (not so easy in Aldi where they are faster!)

[Bigbob]

My wife uses one of the shopping readers in asdas, tecos lets you shop read the bar codes and pack straight into your bags on the trolley at the check out it reads the scanner you pay and go . What really happens is it struggles to scan most of your shopping , it doesn't scan reduced  goods ,  just so  your  no on the fiddle it asks the customer advisor to scan 6 items  . there's only one member of staff watching about 20 of these tills so there running about like a headless chicken so your no really faster but you do have less packaging and less handling 

[getthegat]

Didn't know about the washing of the bags for life. Hygein health and safety gone mad again, or do the bags break down a lot earlier, so more are sold. The self scanning I've seen never seems to work smoothly. Just go to paper bags, no more plastic.

[JohnfromUK]

10 hours ago, getthegat said:

Didn't know about the washing of the bags for life. Hygein health and safety gone mad again, or do the bags break down a lot earlier, so more are sold. The self scanning I've seen never seems to work smoothly. Just go to paper bags, no more plastic.

I have a couple of canvas bags from Brady; very nice quality (but unfortunately expensive) with leather trim that wouldn't have to a washing machine, but for general packeted/tinned/bottled stuff fine and carry plenty of weight with no risk of the base or handles failing.  I also have a couple of medium cotton/canvas bags that are washable - and these are good for fresh meat etc., which occasionally 'oozes' a bit.