4 ms·

100% agree though I'm curious how to fix things. If I go to any supermarket it's full of plastic. Of course many traditional products are often (not always) sol

100% agree though I'm curious how to fix things. If I go to any supermarket it's full of plastic. Of course many traditional products are often (not always) sold in plastic like milk, yogurt, cottage cheese, breads. But, stores are full of, packaged by the store or the store's company products. The easist place to see this is the prepared foods section. Veggie salads in plastic, pasta salad in plastic, hummus in plastic, cookies in plastic, nuts in plastic, sandwiches in plastic, ... I have no idea what it would take to stop that and what the substitute would be. Examples: I like Japanese Milk Bread. It generally comes wrapped in a plastic bag, arguably because it's not hardy like something like sourdough which can be sold in an open paper bag. Similarly, local markets sell Chinese sticky lotus leaf rice, 2 or 3 in a plastic container, they sell fresh tofu skin in a plastic container. I guess they could try to switch to waxed cardboard like milk is sometimes sold? Is that good or is that cardboard infused with plastic? Has any "progressive" country banned plastic such that pre-sliced meat/cheese is not sold in plastic?

serial_dev 1y ago
Not only that, they now sell all kinds of vegetables in plastic. I would like to buy 3-4 "loose“ carrots for a meal, I cannot. I can only buy a 1 kg bag of carrot and it's plastic. One kilogram of carrot is a huge amount for my dietary habits, and I need to throw away usually half of the carrot. Now multiply it by about ten for the different vegetables.
- trollbridge 1y ago
  Mangos? Wrapped in plastic. Other fruits? Often packaged in styrofoam. Meats? Styrofoam package or vacuum sealed plastic. I sort my rubbish for what can be composted, is metal, what can be burned ecologically, and what must be thrown away. A normal household level of buying ingredients results in a mountain of plastic trash with no ecological way to dispose of it (other than landfills assuming the landfill is run properly, which they are where I live… but no way to guarantee it will stay that way for the next several hundred years). I won’t even get into the nightmare of plastic toys, one of which I found had dangerous levels of lead despite being a newish toy from a responsible source (Melissa & Doug), and I was unable to get any government agency interested in investigating further.
mytailorisrich 1y ago
The ban on single use plastic bags ignores the reality, which is that people often didn't plan to go to the shop or didn't plan to buy that much and so find themselves in need of a bag at the till. I think it would be more pragmatic to have environmentally friendly single use bags available for a fee rather than wasting all those "reusable" bags.
- frosted-flakes 1y ago
  People adapt though. I don't hear complaints about shopping bags anymore (except for American visitors), the way I still do about paper straws. Plastic bags at checkouts were only banned where I live a couple of years ago, and most people have learned to keep a few reusable bags in the car, and generally to plan better. I actually worked in a hardware store for a while, and after the old supply of plastic bags ran out it was common practice for customers to either bring their own bags, carry stuff out in their hands, or use one of the hundreds of small cardboard boxes or trays that were set aside on receiving day when the shelves were stocked.
  - mytailorisrich 1y ago
    Well I am in Europe and people don't always drive everywhere. I see it most days at the supermarket near my local train station: people get off the train and stop by to buy stuff. I see a good number of people buying "reusable" bags because they don't have any bags with them... it is ridiculous not to be able to have access to single use bags in this scenario. Mandate that they be paper or compostable if needed but "no it's banned" is not pragmatic at all.
- socalgal2 1y ago
  I agree with your point. I saw a comment above they "solved?" this in some Scandenvian country by mandating the bags cost a ~$1 each. Not sure if that's high enough but I guess the point would be if you make the cost high enough people will quickly learn to bring their own bags. I admit I am terrible at it. If I ride my bike then I bring something the carry the stuff home but if I take my car, even though I put bags in my trunk, it never even crosses my mind to use them :( Maybe posting this comment will help me remember next time. On the other hand, my apartment complex demands we put our trash in plastic bags so I use the bags I get at the store for that ... sigh ...
timr 1y ago
For bags specifically, instead of just "banning plastic bags" (which usually leads to dumb outcomes, as GP notes) mandate the use of paper. It drives me up the wall when I go to a store (Target comes to mind; I also see those stupid FreshDirect bags everywhere in NYC, even though I don't use the service), and the only option is a pseudo-reusable plastic bag, which I can only accumulate or discard. As long as you're charging me anyway [1], just give me a paper bag! Most of the time I have a re-usuable bag that I carry around, but for the times I don't, I save the paper bags I receive and use them to put out my recycling. [1] I assume this is about cost to the retailer.

serial_dev 1y ago

Not only that, they now sell all kinds of vegetables in plastic. I would like to buy 3-4 "loose“ carrots for a meal, I cannot. I can only buy a 1 kg bag of carrot and it's plastic. One kilogram of carrot is a huge amount for my dietary habits, and I need to throw away usually half of the carrot. Now multiply it by about ten for the different vegetables.

trollbridge 1y ago
Mangos? Wrapped in plastic. Other fruits? Often packaged in styrofoam. Meats? Styrofoam package or vacuum sealed plastic. I sort my rubbish for what can be composted, is metal, what can be burned ecologically, and what must be thrown away. A normal household level of buying ingredients results in a mountain of plastic trash with no ecological way to dispose of it (other than landfills assuming the landfill is run properly, which they are where I live… but no way to guarantee it will stay that way for the next several hundred years). I won’t even get into the nightmare of plastic toys, one of which I found had dangerous levels of lead despite being a newish toy from a responsible source (Melissa & Doug), and I was unable to get any government agency interested in investigating further.

mytailorisrich 1y ago

The ban on single use plastic bags ignores the reality, which is that people often didn't plan to go to the shop or didn't plan to buy that much and so find themselves in need of a bag at the till. I think it would be more pragmatic to have environmentally friendly single use bags available for a fee rather than wasting all those "reusable" bags.

frosted-flakes 1y ago
People adapt though. I don't hear complaints about shopping bags anymore (except for American visitors), the way I still do about paper straws. Plastic bags at checkouts were only banned where I live a couple of years ago, and most people have learned to keep a few reusable bags in the car, and generally to plan better. I actually worked in a hardware store for a while, and after the old supply of plastic bags ran out it was common practice for customers to either bring their own bags, carry stuff out in their hands, or use one of the hundreds of small cardboard boxes or trays that were set aside on receiving day when the shelves were stocked.
- mytailorisrich 1y ago
  Well I am in Europe and people don't always drive everywhere. I see it most days at the supermarket near my local train station: people get off the train and stop by to buy stuff. I see a good number of people buying "reusable" bags because they don't have any bags with them... it is ridiculous not to be able to have access to single use bags in this scenario. Mandate that they be paper or compostable if needed but "no it's banned" is not pragmatic at all.
socalgal2 1y ago
I agree with your point. I saw a comment above they "solved?" this in some Scandenvian country by mandating the bags cost a ~$1 each. Not sure if that's high enough but I guess the point would be if you make the cost high enough people will quickly learn to bring their own bags. I admit I am terrible at it. If I ride my bike then I bring something the carry the stuff home but if I take my car, even though I put bags in my trunk, it never even crosses my mind to use them :( Maybe posting this comment will help me remember next time. On the other hand, my apartment complex demands we put our trash in plastic bags so I use the bags I get at the store for that ... sigh ...

timr 1y ago

For bags specifically, instead of just "banning plastic bags" (which usually leads to dumb outcomes, as GP notes) mandate the use of paper. It drives me up the wall when I go to a store (Target comes to mind; I also see those stupid FreshDirect bags everywhere in NYC, even though I don't use the service), and the only option is a pseudo-reusable plastic bag, which I can only accumulate or discard. As long as you're charging me anyway [1], just give me a paper bag! Most of the time I have a re-usuable bag that I carry around, but for the times I don't, I save the paper bags I receive and use them to put out my recycling. [1] I assume this is about cost to the retailer.