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.

People are going to live a particular lifestyle and most people won’t change that since most people are prepared to do things which don’t really have too much of a negative impact on them. But if everyone made all the changes they could (and in particular could be persuaded to stop buying so much pointless crap) then that would help to slow things down so that we have more time before the really disastrous consequences hit.

It's not just the sheer volume of unnecessary packaging for most consumer items (food included).
A lot of it can't be recycled.
Producing the original packaging and recycling what can be recycled are both processes that use up a lot of energy and water, not to mention utilising water comes with its own energy consumption.
2/3 of food available in supermarkets is completely unnecessary. For ex. Fizzy drinks. Producing said item uses up energy and resources in itself.
Consumers are vulnerable to addiction to sugary, salty etc drinks and food. But consumers are free to make choices. Choices based on knowledge. About reasonable healthy eating and about the impact food production, processing, distribution and end of life cycle has on the environment.
So it comes down to education of all ages through different mediums, not least learning about this from home.

I agree. We are a family of 4, 2 ds's and our blue recycling bin and black rubbish bin are collected on alternate weeks. Both are full. I have to get Ds2 to jump on it! The thought of us having to live to 3 weekly like your council, fills me with dred.

I hate the plastic in supermarkets, and try to buy from non, ie farm shop, but it's not my fault supermarkets put the mushrooms in that brown square plastic container, for eg.

I literally have no ideas of how to reduce our purchases, we have no recycling / pasta or fill your own milk, shampoo shops for miles, so that's not an option.

Many supermarkets are changing from plastics.

Kerbside recycling isn't the only place to get rid of stuff. You will have a local centre where you can get rid of the bottles and other stuff you don't have a household bag/box for.

Many people can't be arsed to do that though!

Years ago I started to remove outer packaging that was not necessary. I didn't leave it on shelves though - I filled the supermarket rubbish bins with it - they have to pay for its removal - I told local managers and HQs I was going to do it too! I also left Post Its! complaints on some overly packaged fruit and veg, it was a bit of a hobby horse at one point (anyone else remember Morrisons starting to shrink wrap individual peppers?).

I like to think I did my bit, one pepper at a time

@malificent7

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

I have never found one I like, so I now buy the Faith in Nature 5 litre cartons, and decant into a smaller (reusable!) bottle. One 5 litre carton has lasted me two years!

I think a lot of people can probably think about using less too.

Remember it's reduce then reuse and recycle. A lot of people on here talk about using what seems to me like alarmingly high amounts of cleaning products and toiletries.

Shower gels, bleach, fabric conditioner only lasting a week or two for example. Here it lasts for months as I only use a small amount and don't routinely put bleach in the toilet like many seem to do.

I have done quite well on cutting down our waste, but it has cost time, effort and money, which not everyone has. We have milk deliveries from milk and more, at a slightly higher cost than cartons of milk. Ditto veg box. We buy cans of fizzy drink (but that's also because we don't drink enough to finish a big bottle before it goes flat, and we mainly drink water or squash instead). I have concentrated cleaning/household products from Splosh or big bottles/refills from Method. We use bars of soap rather than liquid (this one is a money saver!) Toilet paper and kitchen roll comes from Who Gives a Crap without plastic. Tissues from Greencane, also with no plastic. I use a double edged razor and have a metal money box type tin for the blades which will get recycled when full but that will take a good number of years! I always try to choose glass bottles where possible (e.g. for oil, vinegar and sauces), and always the biggest bottle (I ignore the "use within a month of opening" instruction).

But at the end of the day, sometimes (like when you buy a new sofa) you have a lot of rubbish, and we take it to the tip.

Most things can be recycled, the things you mentioned definitely can. Issue is your council being lax with collections really, it’s EOW here which is tough enough but every 3 weeks must take the piss. We’re lucky that the bin men here take extra rubbish you place at the side of the bins so I’ve had to stack cardboard high beside the bin for them to take in the past.

I do think manufacturers need to reduce the amount of plastic they use, some of it is entirely pointless. Bananas, for example, never need plastic packaging.

Carrots are probably another one that doesn't need plastic, but while supermarkets put the nice small carrots in bags and only sell 'horse carrots' as I call them loose, I will buy the bagged carrots and feel guilty and annoyed every time I do.

Nearly all the bananas were loose in Asda this morning, but there were also bagged ones, not sure why.

On my local Nextdoor site there is always long running threads calling for a separate food waste collection. It never occurs to the loudest voices not to buy the food in the first place. Buy only what you need and then you won’t have to put the waste in the household bin and get maggots and flies.

In Germany plastic drink bottles (except milk and maybe juice?) have a deposit and are either reused or crushed/recycled (into IKEA "sheep skin" mats, cushion stuffing! Etc). We don't buy fruit/veg that is plastic wrapped (reusable net bags) and if it's not available like that! I complain on my way out. They're offering more and more non-plastic packed things each week.

But individual households are only the tip of the iceberg, tbh.

The thing is that all this stuff does have a negative impact on us..we are just to dumb to see it.
I drive...it has a negative impact on me ultimately as i have to breathe in pollluted air. And so does everyone else.

I like to think I did my bit, one pepper at a time

Exactly what i ve been trying to say!

You think you ve done your bit and the Govt loves you to think this as it enables them to sit back and do SFA, just set targets they ve no intention of keeping (they wont be alive and/or in power) so don't care.

On council collections - well, councils can only do what they can afford to do, so weekly collections vs cuts in social care? or road mtce?
So more collections and energy from waste means more central govt funding - which isn't happening.

@malificent7

The thing is that all this stuff does have a negative impact on us..we are just to dumb to see it. I drive...it has a negative impact on me ultimately as i have to breathe in pollluted air. And so does everyone else.

Totally agree.

How many of us criticise cyclists, whilst driving polluting cars that give our kids asthma and in some cases, kill them?

Exactly what i ve been trying to say! I hope I understood that correctly

Here we have private companies who take specific kinds of waste - I expect everywhere does. They pay the local coincil for space in the town car park and we all fill their containers with whatever it is they have a license to recycle:
Useable clothing and shoes
Rag clothing
Tin foil and containers - description constantly changing
Tetrapacks and other plastics - also constantly changing
Carboard and paper
And, recently, a general waste skip for things taken there that don'tr have an appropriate container

Local group that does hanging baskets and planters have a few compost bins round town. They leave a container or two, clearly marked, and we all dump coffee grounds, tea bags etc in them, if we remember.

And our local rag n bone man (horse and cart) who will take bigger things. Some go to the Men's Shed for repair and sale for a local hospice, others to various recycling places, donated where need or sold, also for local charities.

We arent' anywhere particularly green - I don't live in Stroud!! I would imagine most places have similar, often entirely unseen things going on! Once you start seeing them they are everywhere!

Do people really think leaving their excess packaging on a shelf in the supermarket will make changes. No all it does is create extra work for the person that has to remove it.

Frankly? I couldn't really care. When they start drowning in it, they'll do something.

But there is no point asking supermarkets (or other businesses) to please not produce so much packaging. It needs govt legislation.

Here in Germany the packaging seems to be creeping up again but the law is that the shop has to take excess packaging back and there are bins for you to do that. You often see people taking the inner cornflakes packet out of the box and putting the box in the cardboard bin. Etc etc.

Because no, one person being perfect is unattainable. But all of us reducing our waste and thinking about food miles, etc, will make suppliers / producers pay more attention.
There are small, individual, actions and bigger (pressure politicians etc) things and all of us can be part of it.

There is a special circle of hell for people who put unpacked Bananas in plastic bags for weighing.

(freeze bread, wrap cucumbers Ina damp tea-towel and put it in the sslad drawer)

@CuriousaboutSamphire

All what you mention is fantastic and has been available in many areas both in the UK and Europe for many years.... and has made zero difference.

Makes people feel good, lets them think they are doing their bit, whilst governments and oil companies carry on as before.

I see what you mean @Boarderingmadness and agree with it, mainly.

But there is a shift in attitudes towards packaging, with the big supermarkest all vying for green credentials and redusing plastics etc. Glacially slow, but if you wtach it for long enough you will see it move!

My point was that everywhere has such things, if people would only look for them. And in looking for them might become a bit more vocal, choosy etc.

Governments and oil companies will be shifted, eventually. But as we are voters, consumers, we too need to do our bit to persuade them!

Small steps and all that!