5 ms·

>You mean 'The Green Dot'? Yup -- another business trick is in McDonalds -- the company that supplies the beef in Ireland is called "100% Irish Beef" and thus

by s_dev 5y ago

>You mean 'The Green Dot'? Yup -- another business trick is in McDonalds -- the company that supplies the beef in Ireland is called "100% Irish Beef" and thus they put that on the packaging even if the beef doesn't come from Ireland. I've seen this don't with the equivalent of "100% recyclable" as the name of the company to pass the product off as environmental. However the main problem is still consumer knowledge of whats recyclable. If people think there is a small chance that something is recyclable they will throw it in the recycling bin -- this is the complete wrong approach. Put everything in the trash unless you're 100% sure it's recyclable. Otherwise you'll "contaminate" the whole batch like throwing a bad apple in on top of a barrel of good apples.

detritus 5y ago
Yeah, exactly. The recycling trucks here in LDN have a campaign on the side of them that has words to the effect of "if you're unsure - leave it out!" because as you say, even partial contamination screws entire bales of reclaimed material. My eternal bugbear is Pizza boxes. Used greasy pizza boxes can often be recycled in many municipalities, BUT only in the organic or food waste. Greasy card in the paper recycling stream screws everything up. . I used to live in a fairly large warehouse community and 'made myself responsible for the recycling', so I have greyer hair than I should and a slighly less shallow awareness than many people of the problems in all this... :\
- TeMPOraL 5y ago
  What you say, plus occasional reminder to wash your recycleables before throwing them into the bin, is why I consider the whole recycling scheme to be worthless distraction. Nobody in their right mind has the time and space to properly sort and clean the trash. For the rest, inefficient use of water and detergent has an environmental cost too. This stuff should be all handled by a combination of centralized work at sorting plants and alterations to packaging. Containers can be cleaned more efficiently in a centralized location, and as for the pizza boxes, perhaps it should be mandated that pizza boxes must be fully lined with aluminum foil on the inside - this would be a win for both recycling and product quality, as the pizza would stay warm for longer.
  - detritus 5y ago
    If you wash up manually in a bowl, you can use the remnant liquid to do your recyclable washing before pouring it down the sink, but .. well, as you suggest "I ain't got no time for that". As for your pizza box idea, I'm not sure that's not simply complicating things - now you'd have two independently-recyclable materials tha most consumers will simply leave together and dump in the box, leaving you with sorting problems, and oil going from foil to card anyway. Also, I think the quality of the pizza might be impacted - my gut thinks that a pizza that's allowed to release some of its heat/grease into card makes it less squidgy and sweaty than one left to sit on foil. I haven't researched this though! :) I mean, for crissakes - a neighbour in my block thinks that actual pizza crusts and leftovers are recyclable. People!
    - lfowles 5y ago
      I've heard that Pringles tubes (foil lined cardboard with plastic lids) are a bit of a recycling nightmare for that reason.
      - detritus 5y ago
        Yep, which brings us full circle here, as Pringles tubes prominently display that bloody Green Dot logo. My partner likes the occasional Pringle, and she keeps putting the used packaging in the recycling. Drives me nuts!
    - spookthesunset 5y ago
      > I mean, for crissakes - a neighbour in my block thinks that actual pizza crusts and leftovers are recyclable. Live in an apartment and oh the things people throw into the recycling dumpster. Plants, chairs, mattresses, clothes, you name it. People toss it into the recycle. I honestly would not be surprised if 10% of what gets tossed into that bin actually gets properly recycled.
  - jdavis703 5y ago
    > Nobody in their right mind has the time and space to properly sort and clean the trash. How do folks have time to clean their glasses but don’t have time to wash a milk bottle or whatever? It takes like 15 seconds…
- littleweep 5y ago
  Interesting to come across the word “bugbear” — would you mind sharing which part of the world you are posting from? I’m not sure if I’ve heard that word before. Edit: is LDN London?
  - detritus 5y ago
    My apologies! Yes - from the UK, and LDN is short for London. I've somehow gotten myself into the habit of using that shortcode over the past few years. I should really stop - the energy saved from not using three characters isn't really worthwhile :)
  - soupajoe 5y ago
    They could be posting from the Forgotten Realms part of their imagination. It’s a Dungeons & Dragons setting where Bugbears are abundant. https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/bugbear https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/bugbear
subandi 5y ago
that's not true: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/mcdonalds-100-beef/ https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/mcdonalds-100-beef/
- detritus 5y ago
  I'm not sure that's the same problem. I think Parent means that beef from elsewhere arrives in Ireland, is processed there and becomes 'Irish beef', which is clearly a bit of a stretch of the truth. It's the same in Europe with many types of olive oil - much of it is grown and extracted in Iberia, but then sent to Italy, etc, for processing, becoming 'Italian' olive oil.. Doesn't bother me though - my favourite olive oil comes from Spain...
  - subandi 5y ago
    Yeah I'm not disputing the general point that some people would do something like that. But the specific claim about a company called "100% Irish Beef" sounded a bit outlandish, so I googled it.
  - Closi 5y ago
    > I'm not sure that's the same problem. I think Parent means that beef from elsewhere arrives in Ireland, is processed there and becomes 'Irish beef', which is clearly a bit of a stretch of the truth. The problem is that it isn't true - the 100% British & Irish beef is actually beef from Britain & Ireland. It's a myth that it's the company name. English & Irish law on the country of origin of products is pretty strong and certinally does not allow processed beef from other countries to be labelled/marketed as British. Also a 5 minute google search shows this is just simply an urban legend.
- detritus 5y ago
  I can't respond to your response to my response (!). but clearly I misread parent's post. d'oh. As you were!
anchpop 5y ago
I'm not sure this is true. I've previously heard the exact same thing referring about "100% beef" in the US, but mcdonalds explicitly says on their website that it isn't true [0], which I assume they wouldn't do if it actually were true. I can't find anything about "100% irish beef" , but I kind of doubt it's true unless you can find some source talking about it. [0]: https://www.mcdonalds.com/gb/en-gb/help/faq/18916-is-beef-a-company-owned-by-mcdonalds-and-therefore-your-beef-products-are-not-actually-beef.html https://www.mcdonalds.com/gb/en-gb/help/faq/18916-is-beef-a-...
entropyie 5y ago
> However the main problem is still consumer knowledge of whats recyclable. Strongly disagree here. Expecting average consumers to know the difference between polypropylene, polyurethane and polystyrene etc..., just by looking at something, is beyond the pale. That doesn't even take into account bonded materials, like paper coffee cups lined with plastic. The "main problem" is manufacturers / supermarkets using any kind of packaging that is not recyclable by default, and vague / ever shifting standards from one private waste company to the next on what can be recycled. There should be a massive tax on using non-recyclable materials for ordinary packaging, and it should have a mandatory skull & crossbones style symbol to show that it is hazardous to the environment. On a positive note, Ireland just pushed through legislation to accept all kinds of plastic in recycling bins this week: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/household-recycling-upgrade-accepts-soft-plastics-1.4665622 https://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/household-recycl...
- detritus 5y ago
  I strongly feel that governments should intervene and mandate a limited subset of plastics - including colouration - that can be used for food and beverage packaging, etc. My bottle of sparkling water doesn't really need a green top. The bottle itself doesn't really need to be a light colour tint. Put branding on paper labels, or better yet - go monochrome and laser-etch/mark everything. Have QR codes on bottles that can have fancy interactive digital marketing/advertising/information.
  - uuddlrlr 5y ago
    I'd rather not be a scan+network request away from knowing which flavour of drink I'm holding.
    - detritus 5y ago
      The QR code would just facilitate all the fancy branding shite beloved of marketing departments. Obviously you'd still have all the essential details marked on the product directly.
    - 5y ago
conistonwater 5y ago
Is that actually true? According to [1], McDonalds (in 2020) was buying EUR160e6 worth of Irish beef accounting for 20% of its beef sales across Europe. It would make quite a loss for them if they shipped beef into Ireland while buying that much locally and exporting it. I can't find anything that mentions this "100% Irish beef" theory. [1] https://www.rte.ie/news/coronavirus/2020/0323/1124769-coronavirus-covid19-food-agriculture/ https://www.rte.ie/news/coronavirus/2020/0323/1124769-corona...
- chrisseaton 5y ago
  > EUR160e6 Deliberately obtuse way to write €160 million. Why write that like?
  - coryrc 5y ago
    Because people near Ireland use an obtuse definition of million/billion. Engineering notation is precise and unambiguous.
    - frumper 5y ago
      I'm just curious what 160 million Euro would mean in Ireland. Can you explain, please?
      - Ellipsis753 5y ago
        I think "1 million" means 1e6 everywhere. But the confusion might be because "1 billion" means 1e9 in USA but 1e12 in UK/Ireland. "1 trillion" similarly is 1e12 in USA but 1e18 in UK/Ireland. This is called the short/long scales. It's a headache.
        frumper 5y ago
        I knew billion was different, but the commenter mentioned million specifically as having a different meaning.
    - 5y ago
vxNsr 5y ago
> If people think there is a small chance that something is recyclable they will throw it in the recycling bin -- this is the complete wrong approach. Put everything in the trash unless you're 100% sure it's recyclable. I disagree with this, there are some municipalities that will fine you for putting recycling in the regular trash.
Closi 5y ago
> Yup -- another business trick is in McDonalds -- the company that supplies the beef in Ireland is called "100% Irish Beef" and thus they put that on the packaging even if the beef doesn't come from Ireland. This isn't true, it's an urban myth. The original myth was actually that a company called "100% beef" was a company owned by McDonalds, and this is simply a variant. See: https://www.mcdonalds.com/gb/en-gb/help/faq/18916-is-beef-a-company-owned-by-mcdonalds-and-therefore-your-beef-products-are-not-actually-beef.html https://www.mcdonalds.com/gb/en-gb/help/faq/18916-is-beef-a-... McDonalds Sourcing Statement - "We work with over 23,000 British and Irish farmers to source our ingredients. Our beef, eggs and milk all come from UK farms." > I've seen this don't with the equivalent of "100% recyclable" as the name of the company to pass the product off as environmental. Can you give a source for a company using this? I can't find anything about it online and suspect it's just an urban myth like the first one.
donarb 5y ago
> Yup -- another business trick is in McDonalds -- the company that supplies the beef in Ireland is called "100% Irish Beef" and thus they put that on the packaging even if the beef doesn't come from Ireland. Yea, I'm going to call bullshit on that. "100% Irish Beef" is a marketing slogan by Irish beef producers to signify that all of their beef comes from Ireland.
mig39 5y ago
> another business trick is in McDonalds -- the company that supplies the beef in Ireland is called "100% Irish Beef" This is definitely not true. And it's a common myth in Canada as well.

by s_dev 5y ago

detritus 5y ago

Yeah, exactly. The recycling trucks here in LDN have a campaign on the side of them that has words to the effect of "if you're unsure - leave it out!" because as you say, even partial contamination screws entire bales of reclaimed material. My eternal bugbear is Pizza boxes. Used greasy pizza boxes can often be recycled in many municipalities, BUT only in the organic or food waste. Greasy card in the paper recycling stream screws everything up. . I used to live in a fairly large warehouse community and 'made myself responsible for the recycling', so I have greyer hair than I should and a slighly less shallow awareness than many people of the problems in all this... :\

TeMPOraL 5y ago
What you say, plus occasional reminder to wash your recycleables before throwing them into the bin, is why I consider the whole recycling scheme to be worthless distraction. Nobody in their right mind has the time and space to properly sort and clean the trash. For the rest, inefficient use of water and detergent has an environmental cost too. This stuff should be all handled by a combination of centralized work at sorting plants and alterations to packaging. Containers can be cleaned more efficiently in a centralized location, and as for the pizza boxes, perhaps it should be mandated that pizza boxes must be fully lined with aluminum foil on the inside - this would be a win for both recycling and product quality, as the pizza would stay warm for longer.
- detritus 5y ago
  If you wash up manually in a bowl, you can use the remnant liquid to do your recyclable washing before pouring it down the sink, but .. well, as you suggest "I ain't got no time for that". As for your pizza box idea, I'm not sure that's not simply complicating things - now you'd have two independently-recyclable materials tha most consumers will simply leave together and dump in the box, leaving you with sorting problems, and oil going from foil to card anyway. Also, I think the quality of the pizza might be impacted - my gut thinks that a pizza that's allowed to release some of its heat/grease into card makes it less squidgy and sweaty than one left to sit on foil. I haven't researched this though! :) I mean, for crissakes - a neighbour in my block thinks that actual pizza crusts and leftovers are recyclable. People!
  - lfowles 5y ago
    I've heard that Pringles tubes (foil lined cardboard with plastic lids) are a bit of a recycling nightmare for that reason.
    - detritus 5y ago
      Yep, which brings us full circle here, as Pringles tubes prominently display that bloody Green Dot logo. My partner likes the occasional Pringle, and she keeps putting the used packaging in the recycling. Drives me nuts!
  - spookthesunset 5y ago
    > I mean, for crissakes - a neighbour in my block thinks that actual pizza crusts and leftovers are recyclable. Live in an apartment and oh the things people throw into the recycling dumpster. Plants, chairs, mattresses, clothes, you name it. People toss it into the recycle. I honestly would not be surprised if 10% of what gets tossed into that bin actually gets properly recycled.
- jdavis703 5y ago
  > Nobody in their right mind has the time and space to properly sort and clean the trash. How do folks have time to clean their glasses but don’t have time to wash a milk bottle or whatever? It takes like 15 seconds…
littleweep 5y ago
Interesting to come across the word “bugbear” — would you mind sharing which part of the world you are posting from? I’m not sure if I’ve heard that word before. Edit: is LDN London?
- detritus 5y ago
  My apologies! Yes - from the UK, and LDN is short for London. I've somehow gotten myself into the habit of using that shortcode over the past few years. I should really stop - the energy saved from not using three characters isn't really worthwhile :)
- soupajoe 5y ago
  They could be posting from the Forgotten Realms part of their imagination. It’s a Dungeons & Dragons setting where Bugbears are abundant. https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/bugbear https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/bugbear

subandi 5y ago

that's not true: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/mcdonalds-100-beef/ https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/mcdonalds-100-beef/

detritus 5y ago
I'm not sure that's the same problem. I think Parent means that beef from elsewhere arrives in Ireland, is processed there and becomes 'Irish beef', which is clearly a bit of a stretch of the truth. It's the same in Europe with many types of olive oil - much of it is grown and extracted in Iberia, but then sent to Italy, etc, for processing, becoming 'Italian' olive oil.. Doesn't bother me though - my favourite olive oil comes from Spain...
- subandi 5y ago
  Yeah I'm not disputing the general point that some people would do something like that. But the specific claim about a company called "100% Irish Beef" sounded a bit outlandish, so I googled it.
- Closi 5y ago
  > I'm not sure that's the same problem. I think Parent means that beef from elsewhere arrives in Ireland, is processed there and becomes 'Irish beef', which is clearly a bit of a stretch of the truth. The problem is that it isn't true - the 100% British & Irish beef is actually beef from Britain & Ireland. It's a myth that it's the company name. English & Irish law on the country of origin of products is pretty strong and certinally does not allow processed beef from other countries to be labelled/marketed as British. Also a 5 minute google search shows this is just simply an urban legend.
detritus 5y ago
I can't respond to your response to my response (!). but clearly I misread parent's post. d'oh. As you were!

anchpop 5y ago

I'm not sure this is true. I've previously heard the exact same thing referring about "100% beef" in the US, but mcdonalds explicitly says on their website that it isn't true [0], which I assume they wouldn't do if it actually were true. I can't find anything about "100% irish beef" , but I kind of doubt it's true unless you can find some source talking about it. [0]: https://www.mcdonalds.com/gb/en-gb/help/faq/18916-is-beef-a-company-owned-by-mcdonalds-and-therefore-your-beef-products-are-not-actually-beef.html https://www.mcdonalds.com/gb/en-gb/help/faq/18916-is-beef-a-...

entropyie 5y ago

> However the main problem is still consumer knowledge of whats recyclable. Strongly disagree here. Expecting average consumers to know the difference between polypropylene, polyurethane and polystyrene etc..., just by looking at something, is beyond the pale. That doesn't even take into account bonded materials, like paper coffee cups lined with plastic. The "main problem" is manufacturers / supermarkets using any kind of packaging that is not recyclable by default, and vague / ever shifting standards from one private waste company to the next on what can be recycled. There should be a massive tax on using non-recyclable materials for ordinary packaging, and it should have a mandatory skull & crossbones style symbol to show that it is hazardous to the environment. On a positive note, Ireland just pushed through legislation to accept all kinds of plastic in recycling bins this week: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/household-recycling-upgrade-accepts-soft-plastics-1.4665622 https://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/household-recycl...

detritus 5y ago
I strongly feel that governments should intervene and mandate a limited subset of plastics - including colouration - that can be used for food and beverage packaging, etc. My bottle of sparkling water doesn't really need a green top. The bottle itself doesn't really need to be a light colour tint. Put branding on paper labels, or better yet - go monochrome and laser-etch/mark everything. Have QR codes on bottles that can have fancy interactive digital marketing/advertising/information.
- uuddlrlr 5y ago
  I'd rather not be a scan+network request away from knowing which flavour of drink I'm holding.
  - detritus 5y ago
    The QR code would just facilitate all the fancy branding shite beloved of marketing departments. Obviously you'd still have all the essential details marked on the product directly.
  - 5y ago

conistonwater 5y ago

Is that actually true? According to [1], McDonalds (in 2020) was buying EUR160e6 worth of Irish beef accounting for 20% of its beef sales across Europe. It would make quite a loss for them if they shipped beef into Ireland while buying that much locally and exporting it. I can't find anything that mentions this "100% Irish beef" theory. [1] https://www.rte.ie/news/coronavirus/2020/0323/1124769-coronavirus-covid19-food-agriculture/ https://www.rte.ie/news/coronavirus/2020/0323/1124769-corona...

chrisseaton 5y ago
> EUR160e6 Deliberately obtuse way to write €160 million. Why write that like?
- coryrc 5y ago
  Because people near Ireland use an obtuse definition of million/billion. Engineering notation is precise and unambiguous.
  - frumper 5y ago
    I'm just curious what 160 million Euro would mean in Ireland. Can you explain, please?
    - Ellipsis753 5y ago
      I think "1 million" means 1e6 everywhere. But the confusion might be because "1 billion" means 1e9 in USA but 1e12 in UK/Ireland. "1 trillion" similarly is 1e12 in USA but 1e18 in UK/Ireland. This is called the short/long scales. It's a headache.
      - frumper 5y ago
        I knew billion was different, but the commenter mentioned million specifically as having a different meaning.
  - 5y ago

vxNsr 5y ago

> If people think there is a small chance that something is recyclable they will throw it in the recycling bin -- this is the complete wrong approach. Put everything in the trash unless you're 100% sure it's recyclable. I disagree with this, there are some municipalities that will fine you for putting recycling in the regular trash.

Closi 5y ago

> Yup -- another business trick is in McDonalds -- the company that supplies the beef in Ireland is called "100% Irish Beef" and thus they put that on the packaging even if the beef doesn't come from Ireland. This isn't true, it's an urban myth. The original myth was actually that a company called "100% beef" was a company owned by McDonalds, and this is simply a variant. See: https://www.mcdonalds.com/gb/en-gb/help/faq/18916-is-beef-a-company-owned-by-mcdonalds-and-therefore-your-beef-products-are-not-actually-beef.html https://www.mcdonalds.com/gb/en-gb/help/faq/18916-is-beef-a-... McDonalds Sourcing Statement - "We work with over 23,000 British and Irish farmers to source our ingredients. Our beef, eggs and milk all come from UK farms." > I've seen this don't with the equivalent of "100% recyclable" as the name of the company to pass the product off as environmental. Can you give a source for a company using this? I can't find anything about it online and suspect it's just an urban myth like the first one.

donarb 5y ago

> Yup -- another business trick is in McDonalds -- the company that supplies the beef in Ireland is called "100% Irish Beef" and thus they put that on the packaging even if the beef doesn't come from Ireland. Yea, I'm going to call bullshit on that. "100% Irish Beef" is a marketing slogan by Irish beef producers to signify that all of their beef comes from Ireland.

mig39 5y ago

> another business trick is in McDonalds -- the company that supplies the beef in Ireland is called "100% Irish Beef" This is definitely not true. And it's a common myth in Canada as well.