To be annoyed at Tesco meal deal sandwiches?

I get these sometimes at work. There is a really small tab on the packet that allows you to peel out the plastic bit. If you start there it's easy but it's a bit like finding the end of the sellotape! We have card and soft plastic recycling locally so it's quite easy to split the two bits apart and put both in their own recycling bins, but I agree it could be more straightforward/obvious how to separate the packaging

I'm in Team OP. Fortunately, where I live it's ok to put the window envelopes in the mixed recycling as they are incinerated
A lot of the biodegradable packaging takes years to disintegrate and needs exposure to sunlight, and some cardboard needs to be peeled away from the plastic before it can be recycled. It's greenwashing.

Exactly, people seem to forget that it's reduce reuse recycle.

If you were really concerned about the environmental impact of sandwich packets you'd just make your own, instead of trekking to Tesco to buy them.

I’m not going to ask my DCs to pick up litter

I despair!

You were at home? If you're that concerned about recycling, why didn't you just make sandwiches yourself or teach DC how to? It takes no time and there isn't any pointless card and plastic involved.

Really don’t get some of these replies - especially given what we know about climate change and the problems future generations are going to encounter

This is a problem.

I don’t think OP was making a massive drama about this - just having a valid rant that a major company isn’t making it easy enough to recycle one of their top selling goods - there being thousands upon thousands of similar sandwiches being sold across the country each day - probably all going to landfill for this exact reason

landfill just sits there - for millions of years - with nowhere to go- with new packaging sucking the worlds resources, impacting ecosystems, using energy and thus Being one factor contributing to the climate change we are seeing. The world has limited resources when are people going to realise that

this should be everyone’s issue

This happened the other day?

I also live in a block of flats and was under the impression that the recycling is actually recycled. But same as a PP, because a lot of the other flats don't think they need to bother, it turns out our recycling dumpster goes in the regular bin wagon. I still do split the recycling, but only big things like plastic bottles etc and not the smaller things. Until our council just collects it as one and sorts it all out like some councils do, there's not a lot I can do. I do take my glass for recycling to the bottle bank though.

There was a short bit about this on some type of 'recycling' (how to live more sustainably) programme not so long ago. Apparently the sandwich wrappings aren't currently as recyclable as companies would have us believe.

Not just Tesco ones - I've tried with coop and M&S too. The mechanism just doing work.

Fuck knows.🤷🏿‍♀️

Just put them in the recycling as is. One of my work clients is a major manufacturer of recycled cardboard and their input material is a lot of household cardboard recycling. I was talking to one of their technicians about this very issue the other day.

To them, as long as there isn't significant actual food waste in the box it really doesn't matter.

They expect a certain amount of impurities, which are removed as part of the process as a matter of routine. Grease and plastic windows just make up part of that.

what a drama over nothing

Good to hear that your children are taking recycling issues seriously.

It perplexes me why companies still insist on doing this when there are so many viable alternatives.

As to the snidey comments on here, OP, take no notice. Some posters , of late, are letting the heat get to them. Quite a few threads have gone snippety-snipey of late.

Many “busy working people” make their own sandwiches. I don’t know why you think you’re being an environmental hero for separating the card from the plastic when some people never even buy pre-packed sandwiches in the first place.

I find the exact opposite, I’m 50 It was drummed into us as kids to pick up litter/ recycle etc, the younger generation seem to think that they are exempt due to busy lives & juggling young families and that someone else will do it for them. I asked my friends 25 yo DD to pick up the picnic litter she & her DCs had left in a bag at a local beauty spot, she just rolled her eyes and said “you sound just like mum, I’m not going to ask my DCs to pick up litter” I picked it up and put it the bin provided took me about 15 seconds

Ok a whole essay just to say that.

Exactly. The only reason companies are even trying on environmental issues is because of customer pressure.

Making a complaint about non-recyclable "recyclable" is boring life admin none of us have the time for. But it's because of people like the OP who are making a fuss about it anyway that any change will come.

Just imagine how many hundreds of thousands of meal deal sandwiches are sold every day. Imagine all that packaging festering in landfill for god knows how many decades.

The small things matter, mainly because when you look closely, they aren't small at all.

Agree.

And if you could get them through the next step of actually putting their rubbish into the bin you'll be into a complete winner OP

I get you OP. The plastic is fully on one side and the card fully on the other. It's not like a window you can cut out.

I've tried to peel the plastic layer off and all it does is shred the cardboard. Not satisfying at all and I'm a keen picker/peeler!

But that's what you do with any packaging that has the clear "window" to see the product eg quiche etc. Takes approx 2 seconds to rip it off. It's taken you longer to complain here than it would to tear it off. Some people just don't recycle, anyone that does would take the seconds to do this, much like it takes seconds to put the different items into different bins (we have 3 bins now).

About recycling vs landfill? Lots of people.

Jfc, who gives a fuck?

I thought it wasn’t recycling because it’s waxed paper?