5 ms·

Everything is wrapped in plastic, most of it non-recyclable. This is not progress.

by shalabajser 6y ago

xxpor 6y ago
That's typical for London IME.
- nicoburns 6y ago
  In a supermarket, yes (but they're moving away from this). Local shops tends to be better.
  - dogma1138 6y ago
    Local shops tend to be considerably more expensive and offer a much narrower selection of goods. Plus I’ve seen small stores in London restocking loose fruit by breaking down small multipacks quite often, at least here in the center around lancaster gate/bayswater.
pizza234 6y ago
When fruit is sold loose, people will pick individual fruits up and select them; at the end of the days, there will be much more ruined fruit and general leftover. I've seen middle grounds where the box itself was made with waxed cardboard (with wrapping). Not sure if this is necessarily better. Only few items I've seen are sold in unwaxed cardboard (and I suppose it depends on the food contained). I don't know how to calculate which alternative is the least polluting, but it's not obvious at all that lack of wrapping implies less pollution in the big picture.
- JoshTriplett 6y ago
  I feel like delivery has the promise of better packaging alternatives than in-person shopping ever will. It'd be easier to have more bulk/unpackaged items, less packaging, less attention-grabbing packaging/displays, and less wasted "impulse buy purchase" space, if no non-professionals were allowed in the store. Professional shoppers aren't going to mishandle bulk items (or lick them and put them back, which I have seen happen with kids in grocery store bulk-goods sections).
- 1123581321 6y ago
  It's better to have leftover fruit than to use plastic. Solve the leftover fruit problem with marked down bags if they can't be put to some other purpose.
  - pizza234 6y ago
    > It's better to have leftover fruit than to use plastic. As I wrote, this is not obvious. Leftovers require energy and resources to produce, transport, and possibly destroy. Energy and resources imply pollution. This is very similar to the plastic vs. glass problem. One intuitively thinks that glass is better, but when transport pollution is included in the equation, glass is not necessarily better anymore.
    - 1123581321 6y ago
      I would agree it’s not necessarily obvious, but the solutions to use all food transported are local, and consistent traits that cause produce to degrade over, over time, identified earlier so those pieces can be diverted to byproducts more cheaply. Additionally, there’s that hands-on produce sells better which achieves public health goals and arguably reduces consumption of more environmentally damaging foods. There are multiple layers of misleading intuition to consider.
- wooger 6y ago
  The wasted fruit has already been thrown away by the store in the case of Amazon. Fruit and veg just doesn't need wrapping - but you do want a way to keep stuff you're going to eat raw from touching gross stuff.

Everything is wrapped in plastic, most of it non-recyclable. This is not progress.

xxpor 6y ago

That's typical for London IME.

nicoburns 6y ago
In a supermarket, yes (but they're moving away from this). Local shops tends to be better.
- dogma1138 6y ago
  Local shops tend to be considerably more expensive and offer a much narrower selection of goods. Plus I’ve seen small stores in London restocking loose fruit by breaking down small multipacks quite often, at least here in the center around lancaster gate/bayswater.

pizza234 6y ago

When fruit is sold loose, people will pick individual fruits up and select them; at the end of the days, there will be much more ruined fruit and general leftover. I've seen middle grounds where the box itself was made with waxed cardboard (with wrapping). Not sure if this is necessarily better. Only few items I've seen are sold in unwaxed cardboard (and I suppose it depends on the food contained). I don't know how to calculate which alternative is the least polluting, but it's not obvious at all that lack of wrapping implies less pollution in the big picture.

JoshTriplett 6y ago
I feel like delivery has the promise of better packaging alternatives than in-person shopping ever will. It'd be easier to have more bulk/unpackaged items, less packaging, less attention-grabbing packaging/displays, and less wasted "impulse buy purchase" space, if no non-professionals were allowed in the store. Professional shoppers aren't going to mishandle bulk items (or lick them and put them back, which I have seen happen with kids in grocery store bulk-goods sections).
1123581321 6y ago
It's better to have leftover fruit than to use plastic. Solve the leftover fruit problem with marked down bags if they can't be put to some other purpose.
- pizza234 6y ago
  > It's better to have leftover fruit than to use plastic. As I wrote, this is not obvious. Leftovers require energy and resources to produce, transport, and possibly destroy. Energy and resources imply pollution. This is very similar to the plastic vs. glass problem. One intuitively thinks that glass is better, but when transport pollution is included in the equation, glass is not necessarily better anymore.
  - 1123581321 6y ago
    I would agree it’s not necessarily obvious, but the solutions to use all food transported are local, and consistent traits that cause produce to degrade over, over time, identified earlier so those pieces can be diverted to byproducts more cheaply. Additionally, there’s that hands-on produce sells better which achieves public health goals and arguably reduces consumption of more environmentally damaging foods. There are multiple layers of misleading intuition to consider.
wooger 6y ago
The wasted fruit has already been thrown away by the store in the case of Amazon. Fruit and veg just doesn't need wrapping - but you do want a way to keep stuff you're going to eat raw from touching gross stuff.