Before plastic?

[Chocolala]

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the environment and throwaway society, and this has led me to wonder what we did about various products before we had plastic. I assume we must have had alternatives, but what were they?

How were teeth brushed/cleaned? Did we eat yoghurt and if yes, how did we contain it? How did we get meat home from the shop/farm/wherever? What about strawberries?

Those are the ones that spring to mind, though there will be more. Anyone know the answers?

m.ebay.co.uk/itm/1940s-Kolynos-Tooth-Powder-Tin-WWII-Full-of-Product-Re-enactment-Item-/330350822439

Heres a war time tin on ebay I wouldn't recommend using it now.

Less things were pre packed. You would go to a butchers shop and be served from a counter say meat wrapped in greaseproof paper. Now the meat has to be transported from packing plant and displayed in an attractive container in the supermarket where you can see the contents plus all the legal labelling. Hence special plastic packaging.

love that movie. That's what I'll watch this weekend!
It's a brilliant murder mystery isn't it.

And people used rushes or metal/wood and animal bristle tooth brushes

You can still get Eucryl tooth powder in Superdrug. It’s cheap as chips and brilliant at whitening teeth.

My gran used to brush her teeth with soot from the chimney

I was born in 1978 and remember the milk man bringing yoghurt and milk in glass bottles, he also took away the empties which were cleaned and reused. There used to be a man with a van who sold fish and he would come to your home. Also, pop bottles were collected and taken back to the newsagents. I think we used to get 10p a bottle return rate? Vinegar and newspapers to clean windows. There just wasn't the variety and mass production that you get these days.

My dad remembers old
Clothes being made into rag carpets. In the beginning they would go on your bed, then the arm chair and finally on the hearth.

I remember going on holiday to Barmouth and they had a ‘super scoop’ shop where you’d buy dried produce by weight in paper bags. That must have been 1998/1999 and maybe later. I’d love somewhere like that now. As a PP said, the ‘less packaging ’ shops seem to be a gimmicky, expensive option rather than the norm. I have started choosing loose fruit and veg where possible and put a cardboard box in the trolley for them, but often there is no option for loose (eg mushrooms in Tesco) but the option to buy loose nuts, raisins, porridge, rice etc would be brilliant

Great thread!

A lot of food packaging just got put on the fire. Now we have central heating and plastic egg boxes.

In the early 80s most people brought their own bags to the supermarket as they charged 4 then 5p! Shock, horror.
Fewer plastic tubs, eg for yoghurt and not much else, but those tubs were 10x heavier than now. Prepared food just didn't exist in the same way so no ready meal containers other than Vesta cardboard boxes. Ice cream was in card like fish fingers or a much-valued litre plastic box.
Strawberries etc were in card or wood punnets but you had to pick them over and chuck half of them, and use way more packaging between layers of punnets and many more pallets - now there emphasis has been on reducing food waste and rotting food contributing to carbon emissions, so much more use of plastic film - way less plastic overall compared to the late 80s but what is left, the customer sees.
Lots of plastic packaging came late 80s after the poisoning of lemonade in Safeway, and nearly overnight all the plastic wrap that showed if something had been opened came in. And shops started automating so many jobs so items 'had' to have packaging so they could be put on those stick-out rods and have bar codes, not just in a pile and price stickers put on manually. And the increased desire for 'hygiene', eg people getting too prissy to use bar soap. I can't see most of the public changing their minds on those three...

Also,much more metal - staplers, hole punch bottoms, the bit on box files holding a label, treasury tags - all metal up to the 80s.Consider the environmental impact of metal mining and smelting - plastic was the much better option.

I bought some tooth powder, only to find it's now in a plastic tub, not the tin it once came in..

Does anyone remember the short lived campaign to leave unnecessary or excessive packaging behind in the shop?

We could start doing the same with plastic packaging, bringing our own containers, paper bags, etc, until the supermarkets get the message about plastic...
I'm using the paper bags supplied for bread for loose veg, etc.

@MonumentVal - I'm old and was shopping for food in the early 80s. I have no recollection of paying for plastic bags then.

A lot of things are still packaged in cardboard or paper with paper labels- washing powder, fish fingers, soap, panty liners (though they are made using plastic), a lot of things for baking like flour, cornflour, sugar, cocoa.
So why not a lot of other things too?
The manufacturers and the supermarkets are surely clever enough to think up alternative ways to display products or keep them hygienic.

I remember, milk in glass bottles, fizzy drinks also in glass bottles (Corona) which were returned for the 2d deposit.
Chips in paper and then newspaper, not polystyrene boxes and plastic carrier bags.
Washing powder in boxes, no liquid.
Soap in bars, wrapped in paper, no liquid soap, no cellophane or clear wrap.
No frozen food apart from ice cream and that was in a waxed card box, or lollies in paper.
Bread was unwrapped and put into a brown paper bag and then into your shopping bag, as were fruit and veg, all sold loose. Meat in white paper and then in brown. Cheese in greaseproof/waxed paper.
Crisps were made by Smiths and in a white bag with blue writing on, must have been coated with something to keep the grease in but no idea what.
Most stuff was in boxes and bags or wrapped in paper. And the bags were kept and used again.
Then Tupperware arrived.

Sanitary towels were cotton wool type stuff covered in a cottony mesh, loops at either end and attached to an elastic belt, no plastic at all, even the hooks on the belt were metal.

Tampons were cotton and wrapped in thin paper, and in a box, applicators were cardboard.

Eye baths were not the throw away plastic ones you get now with each bottle of eye wash, they were made of glass.

No plastic fluffy puff things for the shower (forget what they are called) just a flannel or if you were lucky a proper sponge.

No disposable razors, only metal ones with replaceable blades which were kept to be used for other things.

Nail brushes made of wood and real bristle, maybe toothbrushes were too. Scrubbing brushes, brooms, all wood. Our old Hoover was made of metal, still have it, and rubber was used instead of plastic on lots of things.

@bellinisurge
You did at our Sainsburys. It was 1984 when it went to 5p. Scandalised, people were. Though possibly other shops didn't charge - I don't recall prices for bags at Safeway or KwikSave.

I do remember pic'n'mix before most sweets got wrapped. Chocolate tools were my favourites. I'd love to see pound shops stop selling huge amounts of plastic tat - it seems pointless fretting over less than a gram of cellophane when tonnes of crap toys and decorations get bought daily.

Eucryl tooth powder. I have some, but sadly it is in a plastic container.

Also remember the aluminium toothpaste tubes, you could roll them very carefully until you got to the end, to get all the toothpaste out.

Handbags and footwear were leather or canvas, rubber or leather soles.

Watering cans were metal.

thread asking supermarkets to make changes

We had a little mangle roller thing to squeeze out the metal toothpaste tubes. I still have some fairly recent calendula and arnica ointments in metal tubes.

On a visit to France over the summer, it occurred to me that at least some of the things they do are more environmentally friendly than us in the UK. For example orange/apple juice comes in cans (Minute Maid), sirop in glass bottle or large tins & they started charging for bags long before we did. Also, when I lived in Germany, in 1997, people were already using baskets & their own bags for shopping (in Lidl)! We are making great strides, though.

I remember wooden dowels with stiff wire through the centre to help carry multiple paper bags that had the twine handles.
Dipping my toothbrush in baking soda when we ran out of toothpaste. Of course wax paper....similar to fancy parchment but 1/10 the price.
Spices sold in little tin jars.
Katsup, mustard etc sold in glass jars that were used as tumblers once emptied.
My gran (born in 1890) had a little wire basket that held soap bits. When swished in the water it duds it it enough to do dishes.

Americans (still) buy concentrated orange juice in small tubes from supermarket, frozen, and make it up to correct concentration at home at time of convenience. Even little kids can master this (I did). Lots less packaging, is so much more sensible than buying disposable OJ vessels (cartons or plastic).

Saisong Liquid Gumption was similar to Cif.

Flash used to come as powder in a box, to be dissolved in water.

We cleaned the windows with Windolene, which came in a glass bottle. There was a carpet cleaner called 1001, which was in a glass bottle too.

i've been trying to remember how bleach was sold! perhaps a powder?
I remember my gran using Harpic powder to clean the loo.

oh and yes, toothbrushes were made of wood, with real bristles, but that was before my time (I was born in 1953 but can only remember plastic toothbrushes with nylon bristles.)