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.
I think packaging of everything needs a thorough overhaul.
ReplyDeleteCouldn't agree with you more. It's not a bargain if it's not fit for purpose and a sorry state of affairs for all those involved in the production process.
ReplyDeleteRecycling of plastic, paper, glass and green waste is rather good here (at least in Lombardia anyway). I've seen those lare yogurt pots without lids, only the foil seal, and there is one company Scaldasole that makes a sturdier plastic lid so that you can reuse it for the next yogurt you buy, or for any other brand as it seems like one size fits all.
ReplyDeleteI really dislike the styrofoam trays that meat and fish is packed in. I remember the days when my mother went to deli section a the grocer and ground beef or sliced cold cuts were wrapped in butcher paper!
The oddest thing I've seen on Italian tv, perhaps you've seen it too, is a government commercial basically asking citizens to clean the things that they intend to toss into the recycle bin! I mean, are people that daft so as not to take the extra step to rinse that glass bottle or sardine can? It boggles the mind.
Oh sorry, it was me over at my gardening blog.
ReplyDeleteIn this house we spend a lot of time recycling, all that washing out, crushing and sorting. I do wonder if we're being mugs. A lot of people don't seem to bother, both individuals and businesses.
ReplyDeleteI do wonder if the people that don't do any recycling vastly outnumber those that do and therefore if it's all a waste of time. Our contribution for example is greatly outweighed just by the contents of the rubbish bins at our local supermarket where everything and anything is chucked in.
When you see those horrendous images of piles of plastic on beaches etc a lot of it appears to be plastic bottles.
I meant to add that I find not having lids on foods like coleslaw and yoghurt, just a thin plastic film, is really annoying. They don't stack in the fridge like that so I end up decanting the contents into little plastic boxes which do stack, which means more washing up and just a smidgen of each product wasted with each decant. How does that help the planet??
DeleteBTW, I found inexpensive boxes of exactly the right size for this in Morrison's. They are oblong, sturdy and stack perfectly. Four in a pack for about £2 I think.
I try to remember to take all fruit and veg out of their plastic bags as soon as I get them home and before they start sweating. Finding a sodden and rapidly rotting kilo of carrots in the fridge is really annoying.