To want zero waste/ less package food stores to catch on?

[Bambambini]

I just find the amount of waste we all produce really depressing. Or I did when I was much younger and idealistic. I think now I've just more or less accepted we are selfish, wasteful and doomed and ruining the planet and have been sticking my head more or less in the sand these last years. The amount of plastic shit is just too depressing and where do you even start to deal with it.

That folk are reusing their own bags a lot now is a slight step forward. When I go to the supermarket I try and buy stuff with less packaging but it's hard to escape. Just been reading on these zero waste shops that are popping up. Wish there was one near where I live.

So AIBU to think this is a step in the right direction and we should encourage these stores - would you use them?

In germany, in some shops, you bring your milk bottle back to the shop to be refilled.

I've not heard of a zero waste shop. sounds good though . Do you take your own containers?

off to Google......

I haven't heard of them, can you link please?

I agree, there is way too much unnecessary packaging

there's 'Unpackaged' in London I think.

it's this kind of thing

I ordered a nail varnish online the other week and the packaging it was sent in was the size of two shoe boxes. For one bloody nail varnish! And it was filled with plastic bubble wrap. It actually made me really quite cross.

Onya do mesh bags for fruit and veg in supermarkets, you use them instead of the plastic bags they provide they weight about the same and you can reuse them, its only a small thing, but it stops us bringing home several small plastic bags each week

I get very fed up of packaging and loads of it is totally unnecessary, like cucumbers which have the shrink wrap on them, and are then seal in another plastic bag, why?

It looks like a great idea

As long as they're not more expensive than regular supermarkets, I'm sure it will slowly catch on.

When I was a kid in the 70s, everyone took their own shopping bags to go food shopping.

Most shops (nearly all individual as the supermarkets hadn't taken over the high street yet), gave you sliced meat/fruit/veg etc in paper bags.

Even tea was weighed and sold in paper bags.

There's nothing stopping anyone reducing their own waste at any store. Taking reusuable shopping bags, making/buying your own mesh drawstring bags to package fruit and vegetables, and take your own resusable containers to the butcher to get him to put your meat in.

Better still, grow some of your own fruit and veges at home and cut out the middle man altogether.

Well yes to the old shops being more environmentally friendly. I've been meaning to use my local butchers more for partly this reason (and I think the meat is better when it's not mass produced and run through huge factories).

When I go to supermarkets I try and buy less packaged fruit and veggies if I can without all the bumf.

In usually get to the conveyor belt and the lady (or man) is always trying to plastic bag all my odd bits of fruit and veg or double bag any meat or fish stuff. They love just throwing plastic at you.

That's not really enough though is it Midnite?

My local supermarket sells so much pre-packaged stuff, that taking my own shopping bags (which I do) makes a minimal difference.

They need to go back to using minimal packaging and think more about plain paper, but they don't because it doesn't look as 'handsome' as the brightly coloured plastic covered food.

As for the butcher...well the last one shut up shop about 6yrs ago and now the only butcher is the one within the supermarket and all their meat is covered in plastic packaging.

Nice to grow your own fruit and veg if you're lucky enough to have your own garden.

I think part of the problem is that there's just too much choice and too muchh of everything you could possibly think of. One reason i like the likes of Aldi is that everything is pared down. Not the humungus choice of product and endless brands you get elsewhere. It's just nice to go in and not be faced with aisle after aside of 50 different brands of beans or tinned tomatoes.

I don't know if folk would go back to simpler shopping and less choice. Plus there is the effect it would have on the economy.

I do agree Worra. Some of the packaging is ridiculous.

But we can still all do what we can to minimise our own wastage. Every little bit does help. I've changed the way I eat by trying to reduce the amount of rubbish I create, which means I'm buying a lot more fresh food, rather than packaged food.

I did notice last time I was in the UK that even fruit and veges are pre-packaged, whereas in Australia we can still pick and choose our produce in most cases, and the old fashioned greengrocer store is still plentiful. We still have lots of real butchers here, so buying non packaged meat is pretty easy. We have a lot of markets that are easily accessible to buy direct from farmers as well and a lot of people choose to shop that way. When I go to the markets everyone has their own containers and drags their little granny shopping trolleys around with them.

We're pretty plastic bag adverse down here, and some states have banned them altogether (Northern Territory and South Australia). We've also had a campaign called The Odd Bunch which promotes the sale of fruit and vegetables which are not aesthetically attractive.

YANBU. It winds me up! I am tempted to get to the check out and unwrap everything, put it on the conveyor belt and hand the supermarket back all of the trays, cellophane, plastic, cardboard, Perspex etc that gets used by the manufacturers. But I don't want to embarrass the poor check out person and delay the queue.

Unless the government puts pressure on everyone in the supply chain from the manufacturers to the supermarkets, nothing will change. They won't, of course it would impact commerce and it would take too much effort trying to change the laws.

The amount of packaging in our recycling bin is ridiculous but then I chose to buy the stuff in the first place. I agree something needs to change.

I want shops to start doing paper bags for things, including clothes, before the plastic bag tax comes in. I always carry bags for life but if I buy new clothes (eg in Sainsburys today) I want to keep them clean and separate from food. So they were put in a new plastic bag by themselves to my annoyance - it could be a paper one, easily!

My tiny rebellion is to use the paper mushroom bags for any small veg or fruit in the supermarket.

or at farm shop ask for one of the cardboard boxes they get stuff in which at least is recyclable!

I read an article/blog a few years ago about a woman who was almost militantly reducing her packaging. She only used local shops (greengrocers, butchers, fishmongers), and brought her own paper back to be used, brought her own mug to [don't want to say Starbucks, but a place like that], etc. She called it "pre-cycling".

I think if you google that word, you might even get more ideas.

But, in general, we have to be a lot less passive about that sort of thing. The PP who wants to just shove all the packaging at the supermarket? Do it! Dooooo iiitttttt..... If enough of us do that sort of thing, change will happen.

The reason supermarkets prepackage food is because it reduces wasteage. Food that gets knocked around/cross contaminated would go directly to landfill.
Also, paper bags are far more resource intensive than plastic ones.
Reusing your bags helps enormously. And you can also buy local.

Pet food pouches are shocking. They are not recyclable at all. I've tried to use tins but smaller packets are better for me. Might have to take out a second mortgage and buy those individual small tins.

I agree that there is far too much packaging or packaging that can't be recycled.

YANBU it is one of my pet hates. I quite often leave fruit and veg loose in the trolley, especially if it's just an individual item, only for the checkout assistant to put them all in plastic bags! I saw a woman putting a bunch of bananas in a plastic bag the other day which seemed especially pointless.
I also hate internet food shopping as they use about a hundred carrier bags with about 3 items in each.
I like the idea of precycling, going to Google it...

I hate it when they put things in a plastic bag at the till - although most times they will stop if you ask them to.
It isn't just the packaging left on when they are on the shelves - most pallets are coated in several layers of film to get them to the warehouses. Don't get me onto centralised warehouses where items can travel up and down a motorway several times before it gets to your kitchen. Another reason to buy local.

We have the byo plastci bottles for wine in Italy so thats good but our supermarket ( my local) is crap. They have started prepackaging loads of fruit and veg and making said items so much cheaper than the loose stuff.
When i can i use local fruit and veg shop and it all goes in 1 bag- usually mine. However its a bug of mine as well !

I find it really depressing too. We have a container in the kitchen for all the recycling (which then gets separated into individual bins in the garage). As soon as it is emptied there appears something else to go in it. It's never ending. And we generally just buy basic food stuffs not ready meals and the like.

I have to re-do our 'opt-out' form to stop junk mail from Royal Mail.
Meat is a big culprit so I need to do a monthly drive to the butcher I think.
Fruit is difficult - most apples and bananas are packed in plastic bags.