posted February 01, 2008 08:32 AM
"Ben Bradshaw, the Environment Minister, has urged shoppers to dump food packaging at supermarket checkouts and to report companies that use excessive wrapping to trading standards officers. Do manufacturers use too much packaging? Would you be willing to take action against them? How practical is it to unwrap your purchases at the checkout - what do you think would be the reaction of your fellow shoppers? Read the article and our eco-worrier blog and send us your comments using the form below." Do supermarkets use excessive packaging?
Imo, they do. I recently noticed just how much trash we have to toss that is not "natural". The bulk of our trash is packaging. The recycling standards in Japan are really high and strict and if you don't separate your trash and place it in the approved trash bags for your area (which are marked by zones) it will not be picked up. And it isn't just "recyclable" and "not recyclable" ... there's a whole manual given to you upon renting a house/apt. with detailed "how to manage your trash" instructions and reminder sections in the phonebooks.
I understand food safety concerns but I really think the packaging is excessive. But then you get those crazy looks when you don't separate each individual produce type into those annoying produce bags. I have a cart and my apples will really be okay if I just stack them. I understand it's more convenient for them with the whole weighing in at checkout thing. But the weird looks persist even if it's a friggin' melon that doesn't exactly fit in the bags ... which they then try to double bag at checkout. Aren't there smaller, reusable and enviro-friendly bags that can be used for produce?
Lately, if it has too much packaging that cannot be recycled I honestly consider just not purchasing it and often won't unless it's one of those things I really need. I am also glad to see recycled TP and PTs on the aisles but it would be nicer if they weren't in plastic bags, too.
Styrofoam, unrecyclable plastics, those weird little moist paper things between your cheese slices and then again between the cheese and the styrofoam, saran wrap and cellophane, not quite paper doily things in your baked goods, having to open 3 or 4 separate bags or containers just to get to your food. Ah!
And I detest plastic bags. Recently we've been switching to the reusable kind and that at least has gone well. They even provide them at the commissary for I think about 50 or 75 cents each. But off base the way they wrap your goods, although thorough and the effort is appreciated, they use too much packaging, too. (And they aren't having the "put it in my own bag thing" although that might be a language barrier issue.) Like when people purchase meats ... it's already in the styrofoamy, papered, saran-wrapped package. But then at checkout it gets its own little clear plastic baggie and then is placed in a bigger, thicker plastic bag, separate from all the other items, and they actually tape all your bags shut with (1) clear tape to secure them and (2) special store identifiable, this-item(s)-has-been-legitimately-purchased tape. Sometimes they'll add filling material like cardboard or what appears to be some sort of tissue, gift-type paper to "balance" the load in a bag. The strawberries require surgical precision to open without being squashed. It's just very weird.
Wow. Didn't know I had much to say about market trash. I wonder how they'd react at check out if I just opened up all my stuff and left the trash there for them. They don't even like it when I buy my kid a cookie and ask them to toss out the little paper bag they insisted on giving me to walk all 15 paces from the bakery to the check out lane.