To ask how much plastic we could ban?

[TheABC]

Consumer pressure will only go so far with the shops as long as it's cheaper to wrap in plastic and they don't pick up the tab for the environmental impact. I am beginning to think the only way to really solve the problem is to ban the majority of plastic packaging (including the amount used in the supply chain!) and phase it in gradually to allow for the changeover and price headaches. We did it with plastic bags and microbeads. We need to be more ambitious as recycling barely touched the sides of the issue.

I hate the little plastic toys on the front of so many children's comics. They're low quality, easily broken, & usually quickly discarded. They should be banned.

Lots of food doesn't need to be wrapped in plastic bags, potatoes being a good one, it makes them sprout faster.
All the throwaway free type toys in mcdonalds etc.

Purple daisies - it’s not from a disposal point of view it’s carbon footprint. So the carbon expended to say get a tree of brocolli from seed to farm to shop to plate, is such that if the brocolli then gets wasted because it goes off 10 days earlier than if it hadnt bern shrink wrapped then the shrink wrapping has a more positive effect on climate change.

And I’m not saying we shouldn’t not do anything, I’ll happily zero in on unecessary packaging on other products, happy meal toys, plastic straws etc. But people always call out food wrapping on perishables and actually that’s a low down priority really due to the beneficial impact it has in other ways. So much could be gained if we ended Party bags and just have a piece of cake at the end of a party again!

I don't understand why my four pack of tinned tomatoes can be held together using cardboard but my four pack of baked beans comes wrapped in plastic.

I wrote to an online supermarket asking if they would consider loose veg in something like those cotton produce bags a PP posted upstream. A month later I got the standard cut and pasted reply. For me online supermarket shopping stops those extra trips etc but the packaging....

Thank you foxessocks- if only more schools would follow suit!

switching to bamboo is a bad thing?

I think the PP was saying that moving wholly to bamboo instead of plastic might have unforeseen effects, not that it’s bad. It’s still quite eco-friendly and is basically a weed in China, grows anywhere and everywhere very, very fast.

China is also pretty deforested already from its long history of agriculture, I can see planting bamboo only helping in many areas!!

Southeast Asian bamboo, however, could and does lead to deforestation. It’s also the primary region for bamboo due to low cost of production. See disposable chopsticks for China/Japan. In other words? It’s complicated, and really depends on where it’s sourced.

Putting bamboo disposables into landfill with presumably biodegrade more quickly than plastics though?

Fucking fruit and veg that doesnt need to be wrapped. Honestly, I understand there are alot of products that come prepped now but why do we need to have things like bananas, potatoes, leeks - anything with a skin, wrapped up?

Also baffled by the number of people who put loose fruit and veg into those little plastic bags - a single lemon, bulb of garlic, I mean wtf?

The plastic containers mushrooms, stir fry, fruit salad come in. I know you can buy from a market or make your own from scratch but for convenience I buy a lot since being on a diet and I’ve noticed rubbish bin is a lot more full.

Driving to the shops to buy fruit & veg - problem there is that the local shops are closing down because of online shopping and supermarkets.

Used to be able to walk to the local shops and buy fresh produce, weighed and put in a brown paper bag. Proper bread from the bakery, none of the palm oil, soya and pea flour in it, local meat from the butcher and they made the sausages. You took your own shopping bag because everyone had one, no plastic bags at all, not even the bag for life type.

There was less choice but it was fresh, mostly free of pesticides and it didn't go off if it was stored properly. We didn't have a fridge for years, but had a larder which was designed to keep things cold.

We can ban whatever we want to in here, but unless we ban it in countries from the article, planet is doomed anyway.
Kind of makes you really wonder if all that what we are doing has a point...

www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/hannahleung/2018/04/21/five-asian-countries-dump-more-plastic-than-anyone-else-combined-how-you-can-help/amp/

But to add something positive too.
You know all these online challenges like recent bird box challenge? Well there is a new one! See the attached pic 😁

Viable alternatives is really important for me.

I’m really passionate about reducing the use of plastic where I can.

Someone upthread mentioned tampon applicators - that’s one area I’m not prepared to compromise on unless there is an alternative as good for me.

I think a good start would be red nose day - massive amount of single use plastic with only 65p of each one sold going to the charity. Encouraging people to paint their nose red instead would be a massive step in the right direction.

Also baffled by the number of people who put loose fruit and veg into those little plastic bags - a single lemon, bulb of garlic, I mean wtf? I couldn't agree more with this, the checkout person yesterday asked if I needed a bag for the lemon I bought

Actually, slightly off topic but definitely a good place to ask-I hope you don’t mind OP!

Any good slogan ideas for our protest on Friday?

There should be a sort of is-this-plastic-necessary committee. Food safety necessity then fair enough, for now. Cosmetic reasons etc. - no. In other words, not banned but regulated more stringently.

There should be a way for shops to do something on say a pack of 4 beans to say you must buy 4 then allow you to pick 4 instead of extra packaging? Ditto Orange juice etc

Cling film is really over used.
Mdrives be bonkers to see TV chefs wrapping everything in miles of the stuff and also using freezer bag to marinate something. Just use a bowl, FFS.

Also Nigella with her affected rubber glov s and single use foil tins, sayong she’s too lazy to wash up or some such nonsense.

Another personal hate are the interdental brushes and single use dental flosses, the ones that look like a comb with some dental floss

I've noted recently that tesco delivery have started sending my fruit and veg in paper bags, so there is an appetite there that should be further encouraged i think.

There’s already loads of alternatives but it’s cost/practicality.. like remembering to bring reusuable produce bags is more effort for some than using the provided free ones, never mind that the reusable ones cost a few Bob. Remembering to carry a reusable tampon applicator or keep a moon cup clean and sanitised inside your handbag vs stuffing some individually wrapped tampax in there.
We’re told powder clogs up your washing machine so we switch to liquid.. no mention that Nanas washing machine lasted 30 years on powder but ours seem to die after the warranty goes.
It’s habit formed behaviour thats constantly reinforced as a norm. Like locally there’s no where besides grotty bus station public toilet sinks (wouldn’t pee in the toilets never mind drink from the sinks) to refill a water bottle. Yes I’ve went into cafes and asked for water waving my steel bottle at them, like just tap water in here pretend it’s a kettle ffs, and they give me or try to give me a bottle of water (it’s not like I’m expecting freebies, I’ll have ordered my lunch too).

Breaking habits as a whole is the main issue, I’ve heard people say the unwrapped veg is dirty because people touch it, these are adults btw, do they think it grows into the plastic?

Single use plastics should only be available for medical use I can understand needing something disposable in certain places but not on a cucumber.