To be horrified at how much waste we produce but think food producers are to blame?

[malificent7]

Dp, dd and I live here ft. Dsd lives here pt. Our bins were collected on Wednesday and already on Sunday the recycling and wheelie bin are full again.
Main culprits are bulky plastic milk containers, things like mushroom cartons, pepsi/ fizzy water bottles..cardboard packaging etc.

However, the council only collect wheelie bins every 3 weeks. I think the reasoning behind this is that peopke will ve forced to recycle more. Great in theory. In practice many things can't be recycled.
Really i think food companies need to think of alternative ways of packaging food...quite what i don't know.

If you want a supermarket to rethink its packaging then write to them or contact them on social media.

If you want a supermarket to change something you have to hit their profits - making their staff spend their time moving / collecting / sorting packaging that customers leave in their store instead of what they are normally expected to do is a drain on the supermarkets costs - they are paying staff to clean not man tills. Obviously this is NOT if one person once leaves some trash in an aisle - but if most customers did this it would have a serious impact on the bottom line for the supermarket - they would have to employ more staff for the extra work for example. This would make them rethink their policies.

@GreatAuntEmily

If you want a supermarket to rethink its packaging then write to them or contact them on social media.

If you want a supermarket to change something you have to hit their profits - making their staff spend their time moving / collecting / sorting packaging that customers leave in their store instead of what they are normally expected to do is a drain on the supermarkets costs - they are paying staff to clean not man tills. Obviously this is NOT if one person once leaves some trash in an aisle - but if most customers did this it would have a serious impact on the bottom line for the supermarket - they would have to employ more staff for the extra work for example. This would make them rethink their policies.

But the number of people who will do this is tiny. The supermarkets won’t notice or care. To make a difference it would have to be organised and publicised. The publicity would make the difference. One more member of staff on minimum wage won’t even be noticed.

None of the supermarkets will do anything without legislation - all they will do is tokenism

And the consumer has almost no power unless they band together which almost never happens

Just been to Scotland. They don’t seem bothered about recycling like Wales. Shocking.

Huh? I live in Scotland and travel around the country often. I've never come across anywhere that doesn't have recycling facilities. We have food, general recycling and glass. If my bins get full eg round Christmas there are loads of options - I can pop things to the communal bins a couple of streets along, to the supermarket or to the local dump. We don't have to separate the general recycling as much as some places as we have a sophisticated plant that can do that job. I stayed in a hotel in the highlands last week that had self catering units and a big recycling plant. The campsite I stayed at in yet another part of the country also had great recycling facilities. Perhaps it's a bit more limited in the most remote places but people there are used to having to travel for things and there will be facilities in towns and villages.

OP you need to flatten you waste (and perhaps re think the amount of fizzy drinks in plastic bottles you buy. Milk bottles can be recycled and again, flatten them, or better order from milk man. Where in the country are people having to keep bags of rubbish in flats and out bags on pavements? I didn't realise this was still a thing. Not ideal at all.

You can squash milk bottles but I do agree that councils are unreasonable to only collect landfill rubbish every 3 weeks, particularly when they do not offer kerbside recycling of soft plastics - ie the kind of plastic film that is on hundreds of items in supermarkets - packs of toilet paper, round fruit and veg etc.

What happens when you leave rubbish is the supermarket workers are expected to clean it on top of their duties in their normal hours, failure to do so tends to result in a ticking off or a formal warning for them. All you are doing is making life harder for the supermarket worker. Other than cause the supermarket worker unnecessary stress and possible job loss your approach will achieve nothing.

@camelfinger

All the main culprits you’ve listed can be recycled though can’t they? I put all of those in the recycling bin. It’s our landfill bin that usually has hardly anything in, just cellophane really.

I never trust that plastic waste actually gets recycled. Much of it just gets shipped overseas and dumped.

Our council (in Scotland where apparently we don't recycle) aren't too bad. Landfill is fortnightly but we have full size wheely bins not the skinny things you sometimes see. General recycling is fortnightly too, again big bins and lots of alternatives such as communal bins on streets and every supermarket too. Glass is fortnightly but plenty street and supermarket bottle banks too. Food waste is collected weekly. There are also plentiful waste disposal/recycling centres which are free to use for domestic waste and recycling although you do need a car for this. I think I'd get confused and forget to put bins out on a 3 week cycle. Our way I know each Monday it's either one or the other.

Just been to Scotland. They don’t seem bothered about recycling like Wales. Shocking.

We do but what's been happening is that the Welsh keep coming up here and chucking litter everywhere. Apparently, they're mad that we've got nicer scenery so have started a shadow war to ruin it.

YABU OP, if consumers (yourself included) didn't buy these things, companies wouldn't make them.

My council only empties the general waste bin once every four weeks. Even then, the only reason mine comes anywhere near full is because my garden was effectively used as landfill by past owners and I'm now digging all of the rubbish out. Otherwise I wouldn't even half-fill it.

Milk in glass bottles, meat/fish/dried goods/cleaning products bought in reusable/refillable containers, veg loose, bread in paper.

The alternatives are there, the choice is yours.

@DdraigGoch

YABU OP, if consumers (yourself included) didn't buy these things, companies wouldn't make them.

My council only empties the general waste bin once every four weeks. Even then, the only reason mine comes anywhere near full is because my garden was effectively used as landfill by past owners and I'm now digging all of the rubbish out. Otherwise I wouldn't even half-fill it.

Milk in glass bottles, meat/fish/dried goods/cleaning products bought in reusable/refillable containers, veg loose, bread in paper.

The alternatives are there, the choice is yours.

Sorry but that is rubbish - so to speak! the choices you make are for the MC's, most people do not have these "choices"

Where i live, none of this exists, its food wrapped in plastic or go wothout.

I work in sustainability and the issue of packaging is a really interesting one.

When you look at the whole picture, surprisingly there is no real difference environmentally between milk in glass or plastic bottles. Glass bottles are hugely energy intensive to make, they need to be returned and cleaned after each use (using energy, water and creating effluent) and quite a lot are lost to damage and breakage. The plastics used in milk bottles are really easily recyclable, don't take as much energy to create or to recycle, and are usually carried with the rest of your shopping without the milkman having to make a special trip. Even electric milk floats have to be charged up and at present a lot of electricity in the U.K. still comes from non-renewable sources.

There is already legislation in the U.K. that makes manufacturers fund recycling for the packaging that they use. It’s not a very effective system though and is generally seen as a cost of doing business rather than a driver for change. This is changing soon - there will be a tax placed on plastic packaging that is less than 30% recycled (and this % is expected to increase as time goes on). Manufacturers will soon be incentivised to use packaging that is easily recyclable rather than obscure types of plastic etc, and costs to them will be much higher. It is intended that these increased costs will be used to improve council infrastructure for recycling to allow a good recycling service across the country. It’s not a perfect solution but things should be improving over the next few years.

When you look at the whole picture, surprisingly there is no real difference environmentally between milk in glass or plastic bottles.
Not true, a 1997 study by EPA found that the average reusable glass bottle will have consumed half of the energy per use than cartons or plastic bottles. The milkman needn't make a special door-to-door trip, some independent convenience stores will sell milk in glass bottles and take the empties.

Just how many of the plastic bottles do get recycled, anyway? There are plenty of people who are too lazy to rinse things out and put them out for collection, and even those that do are then at the mercy of some of the dodgy firms the local authorities have done deals with who just dump plastic "recyclable" waste somewhere out in the Philippines.

Sorry but that is rubbish - so to speak! the choices you make are for the MC's, most people do not have these "choices"

Where i live, none of this exists, its food wrapped in plastic or go wothout.

Most people do actually have these choices, they just chose to fill their fridge with fizzy drinks (to pick an example).

We have self service type farm shops here, basically a glorified shed with fridges/ freezers in. Run on honesty payments. The farmers just puts milk/ yogurt/ jams/bread/ meats in ( multiple farmers use for variety), and we help ourselves and pay. We return all the empty bottles and jars next time we visit. There’s several nearby

I work retail and the business actually makes money on their recycling.
When we are restocking all plastic and cardboard are sorted separately sent back to DC and sold
A the company have also started a trial for recycling facemasks and have recycling points in store. No doubt money can be made from this as well.

Sorry but that is rubbish - so to speak! the choices you make are for the MC's, most people do not have these "choices"
I'm not MC at all, I'm a sole parent earning £10 an hour. I buy milk in glass bottles locally and bread in paper.

@DdraigGoch

Sorry but that is rubbish - so to speak! the choices you make are for the MC's, most people do not have these "choices"

Where i live, none of this exists, its food wrapped in plastic or go wothout.

Most people do actually have these choices, they just chose to fill their fridge with fizzy drinks (to pick an example).

No supermarket does this, nor does any shop nr me, one did open up a few miles away but you needed a car and the choice was poor, it closed down during the pandemic.

What you mean is nr where you live, you have this choice and its M/C because even where it is available, its too expensive for many people.

Of course, one can buy some veg in a packet or loose but as for the rest of it? no chance, i can buy a plastic pack of oats 1kg for £1.10 or a cardbox 750g for £1.75.... loose peppers are more expensive than plastic wrapped ones.

Poor choices like fizzy drinks is another matter, not helped by encouraging fast food and all that goes with it in order to get vaxx rates up.

@kowari

Sorry but that is rubbish - so to speak! the choices you make are for the MC's, most people do not have these "choices" I'm not MC at all, I'm a sole parent earning £10 an hour. I buy milk in glass bottles locally and bread in paper.

err i did say "most people" and what about about all your other shopping? Or do you live on Bread an butter pudding?

This shop is great and does free delivery. It's a small business in Kent, not sure how far they deliver.

www.yourlittlegreenshop.com

@Boarderingmadness
No you said that choices are for the MCs and that most people (I take that to mean the WCs) don't have them. I was pointing out that you don't have to be MC to have a choice, obviously those struggling wouldn't, but they are not choices restricted to the MCs. Most of us have some choice.

I don't buy anywhere near everything plastic free, but I am able to opt for some better options and every little thing helps.

Can anyone suggest a conditioner bar that dosn't make hair greasy?

I’ve tried a few different conditioner bars and all of them leave some sort of residue on my hair. I find whenever I use a shampoo bar instead of liquid shampoo I don’t actually need the conditioner.

Sorry, that’s not helpful.

My council are awful at recycling! The only plastic they will accept are plastic bottles! So no yoghurt pots, mushroom cartons etc, let alone plastic bags etc.

So frustrating as we also have communal bins but if they are contaminated, they bin the lot. You'll never get a 'pure' communal recycling bin in a tourist city and where they accept so little!

@FlowerArranger

If you love fizzy drinks too much to give them up you may want to consider a Sodastream

I was going to say the same. I love my Sodastream, it’s changed my life!