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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To wish supermarkets would not wrap cucumbers in plastic?

37 replies

wildfellhall · 29/08/2024 13:50

Let alone all the other veg.

I would like to shop in Aldi more often but it's a massive plastic festival. If an aubergine can be unwrapped - why not a cucumber?

OP posts:
OhmygodDont · 29/08/2024 14:35

No plastic would be a very fast easy way for one cucumber to ruin the whole crate tbh.

They keep better in the plastic, though we don’t buy then in summer as we grow our own.

SatinHeart · 29/08/2024 14:34

They dry out without the plastic. We used to get unwrapped ones in a veg box and tbh they weren't great after about 48 hours.

Thistooshallpass24 · 29/08/2024 14:30

That cost would go up, the plastic actually helps preserve the cucumbers niceness/longevity also peppers last better. You can recycle the plastic at the supermarket or once you've paid you can hand it back to the cashier /leave it at the till point.

SoupDragon · 29/08/2024 14:14

Cucumbers are the only fruit/veg item I buy that are wrapped in plastic. (Actually, I do buy mushrooms but that wrap is at least recyclable at the store)

They do last far longer with the wrap so that saves on food waste. It's a shame it isn't recyclable though.

wildfellhall · 29/08/2024 14:10

I had a veg box delivery until recently so must of my veg came 100% plastic-free but you always had your top up with something in plastic. They make it so hard.
I wish we could help ourselves in brown bags, they want us to do all the work anyway, why not let us do that as well?

OP posts:
PontiacFirebird · 29/08/2024 14:03

Bringbackthedodo · 29/08/2024 13:52

I would be quite happy to go back to loose fruit and veg and paper bags so I can just buy what I want and need.

Same. I try and get to the market instead of supermarket when I can for this reason. The volume of packaging we all buy week in week out is horrifying. I’m really trying to reduce it but it’s everywhere. Why does toothpaste need to be in a box? Why do pain au chocolate need to be individually wrapped? I’m getting a milkman too, so no more plastic milk cartons.

Houseplanter · 29/08/2024 14:00

I agree far too much plastic used for fruit and veg.

A weekly shop unwrapped and stored in the fridge/fruit bowl creates such a pile of plastic wrappers is shameful.

I could get far more het up about plastics and the waste than climate change yet nothing is done to reduce such an awful use of them.

NoraLuka · 29/08/2024 13:56

I don’t buy fruit or veg if they are wrapped in plastic for no reason. I expect the big bosses at Lidl etc don’t care much but it makes me feel better!

NeverMindTheBackProblems · 29/08/2024 13:54

They last longer if they are wrapped in plastic. But I agree about pointless plastic, of which there is still too much. And as a single person I don't want to buy a plastic wrapped family sized bag of veg or salad.

YourHangryQuail · 29/08/2024 13:53

I like the plastic. It means when I take a couple slices of the cucumber I can fold the plastic over the cut part so it doesn’t absorb the fridge smells.

Bringbackthedodo · 29/08/2024 13:52

I would be quite happy to go back to loose fruit and veg and paper bags so I can just buy what I want and need.

Lokofloko · 29/08/2024 13:52

Because cucumbers have a lot of water in them, try to do experiment and buy two, and leave one unwrapped in your fridge, it will go bad much quicker.
Other veg wrapped in plastic I don't understand.