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Plastics and food

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Plastics and food

Postby Joanbunting » Sat Mar 10, 2018 4:52 pm

What are you doing to reduce it?

We think we are pretty keen recyclers, but try as we might it is almost impossible to avaid the darn stuff. Fruit and veg are no real problem and neither is meat or cheese because we buy those fromindividual shops and the market and even our supermarket sells very little fruit or veg prepacked - except oddly enough, the bio (organic) stuff.

However if I try to buy anything else from said supermarket - or any other local one - it usually comes swathed in the stuff. For example, I was delighted to find smoked haddock the other day. It was weighed and then sealed in a keep-fresh bag but that was then put inside a plastic carrier which I tried to refuse. I was told it had to be sold like that. The odd thing is that bags for fruit and veg sold loose are all bio degradable and they don't do free carriers at the check out.

Now my preferred dlour is being packaged in resealable bags whic have a totally useless strip of plastic to reseal the thi ngs.

We don't buy bottled water but can't avoid milk in plastic bottles. if we do have a cofffee when out we go to a cafe and have it in a proper cup.

How are you trying to cut the use of plastics?

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Re: Plastics and food

Postby Alexandria » Sat Mar 10, 2018 5:13 pm

Good topic Joan ..

I do very little shopping in Supermarkets, other than toilet paper and kitch paper towelling and bio cleansers ..

Most of my shopping is done in Le Mercat de La Boqueria and the items purchased are in special Paper Wrappings, such as Charcuterie and Cheeses.

Fish is also wrapped in paper and it is then put in a special envelope, and so, when I leave the Market, I take it home and cut open the envelope right away and wash and prepare the fish ..

Bread from the bakery which is wrapped in Brown paper ..

Many Kiosks use a " potato skin " bag as they do not package in plastic bags ..

I only prepare Espresso at home and do not use milk 95% of the time but never in coffee or tea .. If I do, my husband or my parents, buy non industrialised milk from a tiny farm and it is put in crystal bottles for us which we bring for them to fill ..

I do my best not to buy or use anything plastic except for garbage bags however, they are now making " potato skin " bags to reduce and eventually replace the plastic ..

Off top this is all I can think of at moment ..

Have a lovely weekend .. :thumbsup :thumbsup
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Re: Plastics and food

Postby Joanbunting » Sun Mar 11, 2018 7:27 pm

Interesting about garbage bags Alexandria. All rubbish bags here are supposed to be biodegradeable, and only these are for sale. Although it doesn't seem to stop some ignorant people from ignoring this and using any old plastic bags from heaven knows where.

I doesn;t help that we have no individual rubbish collections. Only a communal bin alongside which are recycling bins for cans, paper and plastic bottles. Glass bottles are not permitted because of the noise when being dropped into the ins and the danger of broken glass - even that doesn't stop some folk I'm afraid.

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Re: Plastics and food

Postby Sakkarin » Sun Mar 11, 2018 7:47 pm

Such a huge subject! There have been some horrific articles recently about what plastic is doing to marine life, and the story of the millions of tons of plastic waste that China have refused to take from us.

However the "straw" campaign doing the rounds on Facebook (see below) just seems silly, targetting a minimal offender. It is the big supermarkets that should be held responsible - I use maybe one straw a year, but throw away kilos of excess supermarket packaging.

It also crossed my mind that it's possible that virtually all the plastic I've ever used (other than the tiny bit that has been recycled in recent years - and it seems there's some doubt about that...) is still around in some landfill site somewhere. Must be several tons of it I've thrown out in the nearly 40 years I've lived here.

I know nobody likes a nanny state, but maybe legislation IS needed.

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Re: Plastics and food

Postby Stokey Sue » Sun Mar 11, 2018 9:16 pm

Yes, while I'd prefer a paper straw or none, there's no reason I can see for plastic straws to be a particular problem when disposed of properly, I think the problem (as with plastic cotton bud stems) is that they end up in waste water all too often

I try to focus on avoiding non-recylable plastic almost entirely (expanded polystyrene, Styrofoam is one of the worst), minimising the rest, and making sure it is recycled where recyclable. But it is quite hard to get through a day without coming up against plastic film somewhere, even if it is only holding your junk mail together

It worried me when we went to plastic milk bottles that they were going to sit a long time in land fill....

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Re: Plastics and food

Postby Alexandria » Mon Mar 12, 2018 1:11 am

Joan,

We have large new bins, marked as follows:

1) Paper and Cartons ..

2) Bottles & Glass Jars ..

3) Plastics ..

4) Worn clothing and house hold fabrics ..

5) Used appliances ..

6) A special place for used batteries ..


The supermarkets: Yes, one can buy Bio degradable bags at some .. Now, we do .. Prior, they were non existent ..

Some supermarket Bags: Are made of potato skins .. and say so on the bags.

I have a shopping cart as well as a big bag (heavy cloth ones ) that I carry folded in my shoulder bag, when I go to supermarket or have it delivered, so I just take the plastic down stairs to the Bins. When my husband is home, he drives over and handles all this .. And he puts the items bought in cloth bags or a shopping cart ( a trolley fold-able ) ..
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Re: Plastics and food

Postby Stokey Sue » Mon Mar 12, 2018 2:01 am

I think part of the problem with getting people to recycle in London is that you have to distribute the material to different locations

I get a regular mixed recycling collection, a green sack in which I can put glass, paper, cardboard, cans, cartoons,aluminium foil, and recyclable plastic. That takes care of most of it.

Most houses or blocks of flats get food waste and garden waste collections too

There are bins at the the supermarket for batteries, carrier bags (and you can put similar plastic, such as mail order packaging in there, but not everyone knows that)

In the supermarket car park and in other locations there are bins that collect all the green sack things and also textiles, small electrical items, and fluorescent light bulbs

If you drive you can go to the Reuse and Recycle Centre with more stuff and for me that's a gap, as if I have for example metals that don't go in the green sack I have no way of disposing of them except in general (black bags destined for land fill) as I don't drive

I can get big items (appliances, furniture) collected to be used by those in need or recycled for a small fee, works well

I do use the starch based biodegradable rubbish bags

And I must say that if there's a problem you can contact the relevant council office, customer ervice is good (thanks A). They have schemes whereby you get points for recycling (points mean prizes!) and they organise swap meets where you can pass on items. One day I'll get to one

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Re: Plastics and food

Postby Joanbunting » Mon Mar 12, 2018 12:22 pm

We have our own hameau bins. These are the ones i was talking about but the commune has a very well organised small centre, complete with CCTV cameras to catch miscreants - it reads registration plates. :lol:

Then we have a big recycling centre in town where you cab leave almost everything including oils, cooking as well as motor etc. The cooking oil is recycled to bio fuel. Batteries - all types, tyres, paint and varnish , I could go on and on.
There is also have a building where you can leave items which could be reused.

It is the relatively small amounts of plastics which are bothering me right now. M&S until very recently were serious offfenders. As are a good few other mail order firms. I complained a couple of time then I sent one lot back to them and they have improved considerably. I don't need things on plastic hangers - so why increase the postage by sending them.

I guess, if people want to help the environment they can do so quite easily here because everyone has to have a car :roll: :roll: :roll: one has to understand why it is important and not be idle.

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Re: Plastics and food

Postby Stokey Sue » Mon Mar 12, 2018 1:46 pm

Cooking oil I put in the barrel belonging to the nearest restaurant

Worth knowing that if you click through from any item in your Amazon orders there's a specific link for you to leave feedback on pacaging

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Re: Plastics and food

Postby jeral » Mon Mar 12, 2018 2:57 pm

It is composite packaging which really annoys me, e.g. landfill film windows glued on cardboard, which means the whole thing finishes up in landfill, so the issue has to be addressed at the manufacturing stage instead of items being glibly sold that place the disposal burden and cost on the consumer or taxpayer-funded council services.

Change will take time, but more incentive is needed or manufacturers will "take as long as it takes" to reduce or eliminate plastic and since no country or bloc can dictate to other countries it needs a global effort.

There are problems of course, e.g. plastic was deemed a miracle because fewer rain forest and other trees were cut down. Also plastic can be easily moulded thousands of pieces at a time by comparison with plant-based alternatives which require fertile land, increasingly precious water, harvesting, preparation and presumably quite different machinery which itself raises huge concerns about global inequality.

Clearly we have to start somewhere so if the best innovative brains are on the case, public pressure can help keep it at the top of the funding agenda, both in universities and by capitalist inventors/investors, whilst hoping that the latter will be open source (fat chance if a patent could be applied).

Spouting over, how does plastic get into the sea unless deliberate rubbish tipping? It can't just be holidaymakers' beach litter surely.

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Re: Plastics and food

Postby Joanbunting » Mon Mar 12, 2018 3:19 pm

Jeral. This might help expalin.

http://www.greenpeace.org/new-zealand/e ... log/60072/

One of the things that really made our family sit up and take notice was when we visited what had been an utterly pristine beach on an island in the Bahamas where we lived for 6 years 1966/1972.

In the early days we nd then we and the children used to go beach combing and we would sometimes find beautiful bits of drftwood, Portuguese glass fishing floats, the occassional glass bottle( once with a message) and wonderful shells.

We went back there in 2012 and wandered along several beaches - the odd shell and piece of drftwood but a lot of plastic including fishing gear, chucnks of polystyrene etc.

Last time we tokk a rubbish bag to our special beach and filled it with bits of plastic and other far less pleasant things.

Son and family are going back in a couple of weeks because he has inherited some land but also because he is a very keen diver and is planning to record the state of said cove very carefiully and to do as much clearing as possible. It makes us all very sad.

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Re: Plastics and food

Postby jeral » Mon Mar 12, 2018 5:06 pm

Thanks for the Greenpeace link, which shows how much the problem has to be tackled from all angles.

I remember how time consuming and back-aching it was to sieve the topsoil in a new house garden that was full of builders' debris. The difference is that I had to do it only once. After every tide forever yet making little inroad even for plastic already in the ocean is daunting.

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