I am fed up to the back teeth

Discussion on living for a better and more responsible future
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lancashire lass
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Re: I am fed up to the back teeth

Post by lancashire lass »

manda wrote: ...show scarey images of a world falling apart of landfill sites taking over the planet and frighten them into buying less packaging...do you think I would get a job in advertising ?? {rofwl}


Unfortunately we have been subjected to so many "scarey" tactics to get people to change their habits one way or another and now it doesn't have the impact it might once have had :?
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secret squirrel
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Re: I am fed up to the back teeth

Post by secret squirrel »

I think you are right LL. Kates method wins it for me. We should take all the packaging back to the supermarkets. Or better still, for those of us who live near where the stuff is packaged, leave it there for them to recycle themselves. Or.................leave it all on the doorstep of the council offices. :-D :-D
Incidentally, not only do the remains fill up the bin but the blasted boxes fill up the larder and the freezer as well. )dwn:
The problem really is that fewer people cook from scratch, or even know how to, these days, so they rely on readymade meals which of course means more paper and plastic. This then has a knock on effect and then nothing comes without being double or triple wrapped unless you buy stuff in the market. There, you can buy as little or as much as you need. As wheelie bins have got bigger, you kinda think `oh good, it will all go in`, but it doesnt seem to any more. And then the truth `dawns` that the bins are only collected fortnightly and not weekly any more. Its like trying to get a quart into a pint pot. )gr: )gr: )gr:
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LynneP
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Re: I am fed up to the back teeth

Post by LynneP »

After reading this, I must say we have an excellent waste management system. We can put all sort of organics in our green bins, from tree branches to kitchen waste. The only thing they want to avoid is pet litter and they ask us either to bury it or put in regular trash bags.

Our blue bag program takes all recyclables labelled with the universal triangles and we can put all kinds of paper goods in a bag also. So our regular rubbish is quite small.

The only complaint I have is that feed bags and baler twine, which are recyclable in some places, can't be blue-bagged, but we may get that in time. if we are looking for used doors, windows, lumber or the like we can call and go through storage areas, and all waste metal is sold to defer the costs of the system. They give us hazardous waste pickup twice yearly and a free construction materials day twice, too.

Tippage fees are minimal and reserved for businesses and large residential complexes. We even have electronics pickup on blue bag/green bin day and the items are stripped of hazardous materials at no charge.

So the next time I'm annoyed, I think I had better be nice to those folks!
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Meanqueen
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Re: I am fed up to the back teeth

Post by Meanqueen »

I think one of the reasons why there is so much packaging is because the manufacturers have to put so much more information on things now due to legislation constantly changing. Lists of ingredients seem to be getting longer, safety information for fear of being sued due to injury while using article, country of origin/ethical sourcing, and the list of languages grows because of global trading.

Ilona
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Sunny B
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Re: I am fed up to the back teeth

Post by Sunny B »

The packaging is bigger to hide the fact that the product inside is smaller, imho.

Groups like Friends of the Earth and the W.I. have had demos at supermarkets where they dump all the packaging - less intimidating doing it in a group than on your own.
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Re: I am fed up to the back teeth

Post by BodhisatvaJohn »

Hi all. Wonderful to come across this thread, for I have just sent the following e mail to Tesco. Maybe all of us could send similar mails to the other supermarkets! Tesco's are pretty good when it comes to customer relations, I wrote to them last year about their sales of cheap battery chickens, and received a full reply from them within a few days. I'll post on here, any reply I receive from this mail too.

Reasons to not shop at Supermarkets, number 107!

I recently bought a packet of Tesco Total Care interdental woodsticks from one of your branches. I can almost accept that the sticks are enclosed in a plastic container, for safety reasons, but, why do you then need to encase the container in more moulded plastic?

The same goes for many of the other products you sell too, we all know about cucumbers that are wrapped in plasic, which is seen as the height of bad taste and an uncaring attitude towards the environment, but what of the hundreds of other products that are also encased in plastics; from foods to toys, from electrical goods to clothes. Whenever I enter one of your stores, and of course of any other supermarket, my eyes are assaulted by the mountains of plastic that seems to cover most of your goods.

You must know that plastic takes thousands of years to break down, and that it causes untold suffering in the environment, especially when it gets into rivers and seas, where it is ingested by fish and other vertebrae, eventually finding its way though the food chain to us!

My partner and I never buy fresh produce from supermarkets, wrapping being one of the main reasons for not doing so, but we have continued to use you for non perishable products. However, we have made a commitment now, to source, where ever possible goods from smaller outlets, or just not buy any more items that are overwrapped.

Ok, we are still in a small minority, and, not until many more people like us boycott supermarkets, will you have the incentive to change your profligate ways. But I just want to let you know, we will not longer enter your stores. Not that the trade of two people will affect your balance sheet at all, I realise

This isn't meant to be a personal attack, and I bear no animosity towards any one.

Best wishes

John and Helen.
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wendy
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Re: I am fed up to the back teeth

Post by wendy »

It is so infuritating isn't it John ? Cucumbers have their own wrapping !.
I do write and complain about things and have done so about wrapping before. But usually get the same churned out reply that everyone does.
The only time I actually got somthing other than the standard reply was when I sent photographs of battery hens, straight out of the battery, we rescue from farms. Then I think I actually did touch a nerve.
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Re: I am fed up to the back teeth

Post by BodhisatvaJohn »

Hi wendy

Yes, so frustrating. But I always have to be sure I don't alienate people by banging on all of the time about certain issues.

There are a lot of good points in the other posts on this thread. Someone has pointed out, that most people love to get goods, packaged to the hilt. I remember reading a similar piece in a paper, a while ago, where the writer suggested that opening presents, covered in wrapping, was a large part of the joy of receiving them!!

After watching David Atenborough's programme last night, about the effects that overpopulation will have on our raw materials, it's even more important now, that we all try to cut down on consumption as much as possible in every way.
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Mo
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Re: I am fed up to the back teeth

Post by Mo »

I'm not sure I agree about the cucumbers, I eat the skin and if they are on display it's probably more hygienic. But they have discovered a trick of diguising pale old cukes - tthe plastic covering is now green - grrrr!
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Re: I am fed up to the back teeth

Post by BodhisatvaJohn »

I'm not sure I agree about the cucumbers, I eat the skin and if they are on display it's probably more hygienic.

Then just wash them before eating Mo.
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Meanqueen
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Re: I am fed up to the back teeth

Post by Meanqueen »

I might be a tad fussy here, but, I don't want my food touched by a lot of other people before I get it home, even though it will be washed and peeled. I'll have a bag thankyou, then I can use it as a dog poo bag. :-D

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Re: I am fed up to the back teeth

Post by liskeardjane »

I'm a fan of French food wrapping - bread is given a piece of paper just big enough to put your hand round it, veg, big pile of it now wrappers - crabs and fish in tanks - just stick your hand in, stick in in your bike basket and take it home, fish goes in a bit of waxed paper as does meat. No shopping bags in the shops and everyone has a basket on wheels as everyone seems to walk to the shops! really hard to find much packet food - just started to see microwave meals the last time I went 2008 - i get so cross with food being wrapped when I can't recycle the wrapper and i moan to the shop manager that my cucumber is wearing a condom every time I go in there!!
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Re: I am fed up to the back teeth

Post by BodhisatvaJohn »

Hello to you MeanQueen.

I am in no position to wish to dictate how others live. And, I know that refusing to accept one cucumber which is wrapped in plastic is never going to make one tiny fraction of a difference to our eco-system. But yet... If all of us could do something, no matter how small, when added together, it would be made such a difference.

One of the reasons I refuse to accept anything wrapped in plastic is knowing that, this tiny piece of plastic could end up, in a river or sea somewhere, where it could be ingested by a fish or other animal, and if it doesn't kill the creature there and then, it could be pass on up the food chain, and I or someone, may eventually end up eating it.

Every action we take, has an effect somewhere.

I really don't want to preach to you, for I respect your a lot, having read your posts on here, and watching you on TV last year.

Love and happiness, John
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Dave
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Re: I am fed up to the back teeth

Post by Dave »

it is hard to please all the people all of the time
in the last few threads
some want cucumbers wrapped and some don't mind if they are not
its a bit hard for the shop to
"do what is right"
but there must be a biodegradable plastic somewhere out there
and that could be used for wrapping most things

when i go fishing(that will upset some)
you can get pva bags that you put bait into
but the point is the bags dissolve in water
and you can get bags that dissolve at different rates from lasting a few seconds to ones that last a few minutes
well you could make one that takes a week to disolve
and use that for food wraps
some plastic degrads in sunlight over a period of time
why not force companies to use that
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wendy
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Re: I am fed up to the back teeth

Post by wendy »

Don't know if other poop bags do it, but pedigree, black ones, disintegrate over time.
I have opened some old ones, in the past, and the bags are starting to go.
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