AIBU to ask if that bit of plastic is really necessary **title edited by MNHQ**

[Ifwisheswereunicorns]

If you think of every plastic toy you had as a child, every plastic wrapper or box it ever came in, every bit of plastic curling ribbon that made a pretty bow around that gift you gave, every happy meal toy you got as a kid, every happy meal toy you got for your kid, every drinking straw, every shampoo or conditioner bottle, every washing up liquid bottle, every milk bottle, every party bag filler toy (that falls apart in the car on the way home!), every bit of plastic your food of drink comes in; IT STILL EXISTS! In one way or another (unless it's been insinorated, causing atmospheric polution, cluttering up our planet; polluting our oceans, shores and land.
Our planet is in crisis.
AIBU to ask if you could think again about what to buy at Christmas? X

I'm using brown paper for wrapping up too

Cosmetics and other health and beauty products strike me as the worst. The packaging is the product. What we should do is boycott a particular brand until they get their packaging right and if they don’t they go out of business. Then we move onto the next brand, etc.

Look at the quantity of melons sold in supermarkets. 12 varieties in mine, all stamped Brazil. All from land that was once forest and in three years will be desert. Don’t buy melons they make deserts.

Plastic will be replaced by vegetation based packaging and containers. Then the fight will be for productive land. It already is given much maize and other crops go to biomass now.

Soil will become the most precious resource when our grandkids are our age.

I think it is worth remembering that the phrase 'reduce, reuse, recycle' is in that order for a reason.

It's all very well insisting on recyclable things, but keeping on with the single use items and justifying them by saying they'll be recycled is still using up resources and energy.

Often it'd be better and easier to simply skip the problematic item altogether than tie ourselves in knots trying to find a recyclable option. E.g. Balloon releases!

Opting for a smaller number of better quality things which can be passed on and reused means the lack of recyclability isn't such an issue. I'm thinking of Playmobil and Lego here, for example.

Plastic isn't 100% evil but we can all be more mindful of what we use and how we use it.

It's a good material for toys because it can be cleaned and is durable. But if it's used for a piece of party bag crap that breaks before you've got it out of the wrapper it's worse than useless.

in line with contacting mac donalds about plastic toys, how about the hotel chains and their little plastic bottle of toiletries? I travel for work quite a lot and the hotel I was in on Thursday night (Double tree Hilton) had kindly supplied me with two bottles of shampoo, two bottles of conditioner, two bottles of shower gel, two plastic shower hats and two bars of soap, wrapped in paper. Other than the soap. the rest was all plastic waste. think how many of these they get through in a week, never mind a year. Hotels should keep a small supply in stock and guests who need something could phone down to reception for it. Time to start applying some pressure to this sector.
As an aside, the Qbic Hotel in London prides itself on being as green as possible in every aspect of what it does, so it is perfectly possible to make these changes.