Excessive Packaging!

mike65

Today I bought roll of ball of string, a very simple non toxic, solid product. So they covered it in hard plastic and then plastic wrap.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0903/mike65/Dsc01288.jpg

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Whats wrong with a box of balls of string on a counter? And before anyone says it won't scan lots of stuff does'nt scan like loose fruit and veg it does'nt stop it being sold in thousands of shops. Anyway these days you can assign a key on the electric till for any non-scan item so its no big deal.

Mike.

monkeyfudge

I don't normally eat in Supermacs but I was in a hurry yesterday and grabbed a burger to eat while I was walking. They wrap the burger in a wrapper, then put it in a box and then but it in a little bag... The bag and the box went straight in the bin as soon as I left the place... it's pretty damn wasteful.

Do-more

Me thinks it's time for an EU directive or two!

It's the composite packaging that's the worst, it's a real pain trying to break things down into their component parts to try and maximise what can be recycled.

Again Scandinavia takes the lead on the burger packaging all kept to a minimum in McDonalds there, no prepacked ketchups either, all pumped from bulk containers, I can't see Environment winning over Marketing here anytime soon though.

piraka

It is not just the issue of getting rid of the packaging.

Consider how much green house gases was emitted in manufacturing the packing, just to throw it away.

SeanW

exactly why oh why are things packaged so wastefully when they could easily use much less.

I don't understand this at all.

This is one of those things where I think being kind to the environment doesn't mean doing less, but doing more with less. It's up there with incandescents vs. CFLs, insulation versus huge heating bills, etc.

prospect

When shopping I tend to buy large 'jumbo' packs of product for two reasons.

If for example I am buying sausages, I will buy the biggest pack available, as a pack of 16 sausages uses half the packaging that 2 packs of 8 sausages. Also 'family' packs are usually cheaper per unit.

When I get home, I divide them into appropriate portions and freeze them in old plastic chinese takeaway boxes, so this means that if I feel like a fry-up, I do not need to defrost a jumbo pack and eat the lot.

So I think this is good because:
1. It is cheaper to buy in bulk
2. Bulk packed products generally use less packaging
3. I am re-using old plastic chinese takeaway containers
4. I have the exact quantities of product frozen,. so I only defrost and use what I need

SeanW

nice one!!