At the weekend after his group walk MrFF picked up a few items for me at one of the budget supermarkets that he loves and I find totally depresssing. The shopping included a bag of wonky (misshapen) carrots pre-packed in a sealed plastic bag which I put into our veg basket.
The next day I opened the bag, I should have done that immediately because the carrots were soaking wet, they’d either been frozen or kept in cold storage. I spread them out on the kitchen worktop to dry but they soon started turning black and rotten at the top and bottom. I had to throw them all away.
The carrots cost less than £1, I am not concerned about the money but I am furious that a grower has gone to the trouble of producing and harvesting, they’ve been packed and probably transported across the country, stored, displayed and sold to end up in the bin. How many people have been involved in this process, we all wasted our time and pointlessly used fuel and energy.
It’s high time the issue of food packaging was taken seriously from a recycling and food preservation point of view. The steps being taken are minor, like no longer having a plastic clip on lid on a large plastic yoghurt pot or being able to recycle some containers if you peel off the film and the plastic labels that are not recyclable. And of course recycle symbols and information are hidden and impossible to read. Not that I am convinced about recycling, we have an all in one collection here, I have no idea how paper gets sorted from glass, plastic or metal or what happens if there is a non recyclable item in the bin. We are possibly being taken for fools as we wash out jars and tins, peel the plastic windows off paper bags etc. Meantime I’ve written to the supermarket telling them they need to do better, I have no expectations anything will change.
