All our packaging: how to reduce it substantially?

So, leaving aside the obvious food waste, I'm fairly floored by the amount of cardboard, paper and plastic I've been putting in the recycling bins today. And I'm certain many people are feeling similarly about all their own waste (just had a big chat with the next door neighbour, who brought the topic of waste up).

I'm a strong believer in the Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility: for each additional unit (e.g. a toy car) of a product consumed a person's satisfaction declines. In other words, a kid isn't, for instance, getting anything like the same sort of satisfaction from cars 5, 10, or 15 as he is from car 1. In a nutshell, we all could do with far fewer presents, with far less paper and cardboard and all the rest and our satisfaction would probably not decline much, if at all. I've always been very conscientious about recycling, ever since I lived and worked in Scandinavia in the 1990s, an experience which was a huge eyeopener in how we as a society could be much more intelligent about our waste.

Anyway, while for cultural reasons to do with "expectations" I may not win the debate even in my own home about buying fewer presents next year, how can I reduce the impact of all this consumerism on our planet? I sense that there is a huge revolution needed in our packaging culture and it will have to be done at an EU-wide level at least. There's no way it could succeed on a voluntary basis because the fancy packaging will have the marketing edge and thus undermine attempts by companies to act more environmentally in their packaging. However, I cannot envisage all the extraordinary packaging of products today continuing indefinitely. I still remember when two of the local pubs used to sell sweets - bon, bons, Cola Cubes, etc - out of big jars, so anybody who thinks the current level of packaging has always been with us is very mistaken.

There is definitely a massive cultural change needed in terms of the "I have to buy a present for..." mentality. Can we not start a campaign to make it acceptable to give presents with far less packaging? Governments are giving tax breaks to businesses all the time, why not tax breaks to reduce waste? (Or else just change the law and compel them to be more ethical) It could be a superb business opportunity to facilitate a consumerism with far less plastic/cardboard/paper etc.

In the meantime, though, what is the next level up from conventionally recycling almost everything? Even our quotidian milk back in the 80s was in glass milk bottles - remember this? - which we washed and put back out for the milkman - not it's just plastic container after plastic container, every single day in the vast majority of homes. There are so many products like that now that really are no credit to our society but it seems to be the "lower cost" option to create more waste, when most of us would agree that we should inventivise a more efficient, less wasteful use of resources.

Carlingford Locked

You’re wasting your time. The capitalist system works if we keep consuming more and more and no politicians are going to tell us to spend and consume less, those who do are ridiculed. People are not a willing to lower their standard of living or make inconvenient changes. Greed and laziness conquers all. The waste of Xmas is just a pumped up version of normal day to day consumption.
Basically things will continue as are until resources run scarce and war and fascism and chaos takes hold.
Happy f*cking Christmas.

Fr_Dougal

Stop having kids.

Blaizes

Yes (such waste reduced by 25%)

Deleted User wrote: »

So, leaving aside the obvious food waste, I'm fairly floored by the amount of cardboard, paper and plastic I've been putting in the recycling bins today. And I'm certain many people are feeling similarly about all their own waste (just had a big chat with the next door neighbour, who brought the topic of waste up).

I'm a strong believer in the Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility: for each additional unit (e.g. a toy car) of a product consumed a person's satisfaction declines. In other words, a kid isn't, for instance, getting anything like the same sort of satisfaction from cars 5, 10, or 15 as he is from car 1. In a nutshell, we all could do with far fewer presents, with far less paper and cardboard and all the rest and our satisfaction would probably not decline much, if at all. I've always been very conscientious about recycling, ever since I lived and worked in Scandinavia in the 1990s, an experience which was a huge eyeopener in how we as a society could be much more intelligent about our waste.

Anyway, while for cultural reasons to do with "expectations" I may not win the debate even in my own home about buying fewer presents next year, how can I reduce the impact of all this consumerism on our planet? I sense that there is a huge revolution needed in our packaging culture and it will have to be done at an EU-wide level at least. There's no way it could succeed on a voluntary basis because the fancy packaging will have the marketing edge and thus undermine attempts by companies to act more environmentally in their packaging. However, I cannot envisage all the extraordinary packaging of products today continuing indefinitely. I still remember when two of the local pubs used to sell sweets - bon, bons, Cola Cubes, etc - out of big jars, so anybody who thinks the current level of packaging has always been with us is very mistaken.

There is definitely a massive cultural change needed in terms of the "I have to buy a present for..." mentality. Can we not start a campaign to make it acceptable to give presents with far less packaging? Governments are giving tax breaks to businesses all the time, why not tax breaks to reduce waste? (Or else just change the law and compel them to be more ethical) It could be a superb business opportunity to facilitate a consumerism with far less plastic/cardboard/paper etc.

In the meantime, though, what is the next level up from conventionally recycling almost everything? Even our quotidian milk back in the 80s was in glass milk bottles - remember this? - which we washed and put back out for the milkman - not it's just plastic container after plastic container, every single day in the vast majority of homes. There are so many products like that now that really are no credit to our society but it seems to be the "lower cost" option to create more waste, when most of us would agree that we should inventivise a more efficient, less wasteful use of resources.

+1 to this.Far too much packaging. With kids especially you start to drown in the stuff.

P_1

Carlingford Locked wrote: »

You’re wasting your time. The capitalist system works if we keep consuming more and more and no politicians are going to tell us to spend and consume less, those who do are ridiculed. People are not a willing to lower their standard of living or make inconvenient changes. Greed and laziness conquers all. The waste of Xmas is just a pumped up version of normal day to day consumption.
Basically things will continue as are until resources run scarce and war and fascism and chaos takes hold.
Happy f*cking Christmas.

Indeed sure now we have the chamber of commerce criticising met eireann for giving a weather forecast that caused people to stay out at home and not go out and consume like good capitalists

Gimme A Pound

Yes (such waste reduced by 25%)

Capitalism means you can buy what you need with ease, it means people can set up their own businesses, it means competitive prices - capitalism doesn't just mean greed and hyper consumerism.

But I agree the waste at Christmas is crazy and the amount of packaging is also.

Marley and Marley

Fr_Dougal wrote: »

Stop having kids.

Correct.

Every single problem the world faces regarding waste of resources stems from there being far too many people on the planet.

If the worlds population had stayed where it was in 1900 everything would be fine.

Of all the things you can do to help the environment not having children is by far the best, nothing else comes close to it.

Twenty Grand

Marley and Marley wrote: »

Correct.

Every single problem the world faces regarding waste of resources stems from there being far too many people on the planet.

If the worlds population had stayed where it was in 1900 everything would be fine.

Of all the things you can do to help the environment not having children is by far the best, nothing else comes close to it.

You wonder would the rate of technological advancement have been as swift without the extra few billion people working.

Presuming we follow the same tehnological progress, then humanity would eventually use all resources and we'd find ourselves in the same spot, just a two or three hundred years in the future.

andekwarhola

I just need to start not forgetting the 456 plastic bags I leave in my boot 'for the next time I got to Tesco'.

Blaizes

Yes (such waste reduced by 25%)

Deleted User wrote: »

So, leaving aside the obvious food waste, I'm fairly floored by the amount of cardboard, paper and plastic I've been putting in the recycling bins today. And I'm certain many people are feeling similarly about all their own waste (just had a big chat with the next door neighbour, who brought the topic of waste up).

I'm a strong believer in the Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility: for each additional unit (e.g. a toy car) of a product consumed a person's satisfaction declines. In other words, a kid isn't, for instance, getting anything like the same sort of satisfaction from cars 5, 10, or 15 as he is from car 1. In a nutshell, we all could do with far fewer presents, with far less paper and cardboard and all the rest and our satisfaction would probably not decline much, if at all. I've always been very conscientious about recycling, ever since I lived and worked in Scandinavia in the 1990s, an experience which was a huge eyeopener in how we as a society could be much more intelligent about our waste.

Anyway, while for cultural reasons to do with "expectations" I may not win the debate even in my own home about buying fewer presents next year, how can I reduce the impact of all this consumerism on our planet? I sense that there is a huge revolution needed in our packaging culture and it will have to be done at an EU-wide level at least. There's no way it could succeed on a voluntary basis because the fancy packaging will have the marketing edge and thus undermine attempts by companies to act more environmentally in their packaging. However, I cannot envisage all the extraordinary packaging of products today continuing indefinitely. I still remember when two of the local pubs used to sell sweets - bon, bons, Cola Cubes, etc - out of big jars, so anybody who thinks the current level of packaging has always been with us is very mistaken.

There is definitely a massive cultural change needed in terms of the "I have to buy a present for..." mentality. Can we not start a campaign to make it acceptable to give presents with far less packaging? Governments are giving tax breaks to businesses all the time, why not tax breaks to reduce waste? (Or else just change the law and compel them to be more ethical) It could be a superb business opportunity to facilitate a consumerism with far less plastic/cardboard/paper etc.

In the meantime, though, what is the next level up from conventionally recycling almost everything? Even our quotidian milk back in the 80s was in glass milk bottles - remember this? - which we washed and put back out for the milkman - not it's just plastic container after plastic container, every single day in the vast majority of homes. There are so many products like that now that really are no credit to our society but it seems to be the "lower cost" option to create more waste, when most of us would agree that we should inventivise a more efficient, less wasteful use of resources.

Just a little story. Decided to do a declutter after Christmas too many clothes so off I went to my local clothes recycling bin.Someone had jammed the bin drawer with what seemed to be a duvet all wrapped up in a bag. Then went to another clothes recycling centre same story all the bin drawers jammed with bags of clothes or god knows what that people couldn't even be bothered to unpack and place in the bin item by item.Then as the bins were jammed there were bags and bags of clothes just left by the side of the bins.I wouldn't do this so brought mine home again. Do people not know how to use bins or is it just being lazy? Anyway point being we do have too much stuff. Went supermarket shopping today and the amount of cardboard and packaging is crazy.I don't think anyone cares though or do they?

mad muffin

Yes (such waste reduced by 25%)

Haylee Loose Tailpipe wrote: »

Capitalism means you can buy what you need with ease, it means people can set up their own businesses, it means competitive prices - capitalism doesn't just mean greed and hyper consumerism.

But I agree the waste at Christmas is crazy and the amount of packaging is also.

Sure if we lived I a world where it was all little high street shops and the like.

We live I a corporate mega conglomerate world. And they feed on greed.

Blaizes

Yes (such waste reduced by 25%)

Maybe we couldn't afford the prices and would buy less, maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing

I was actually just saying today it's shocking how often we've to empty the bin. i don't even know what packaging i'm using

Odelay

Maybe instead of buying new, buy some of the kids presents in a thrift shop?

LirW

Yes (such waste reduced by 25%)

Blaizes wrote: »

Just a little story. Decided to do a declutter after Christmas too many clothes so off I went to my local clothes recycling bin.Someone had jammed the bin drawer with what seemed to be a duvet all wrapped up in a bag. Then went to another clothes recycling centre same story all the bin drawers jammed with bags of clothes or god knows what that people couldn't even be bothered to unpack and place in the bin item by item.Then as the bins were jammed there were bags and bags of clothes just left by the side of the bins.I wouldn't do this so brought mine home again. Do people not know how to use bins or is it just being lazy? Anyway point being we do have too much stuff. Went supermarket shopping today and the amount of cardboard and packaging is crazy.I don't think anyone cares though or do they?

I think some people do care and some stores certainly react. It might be a small gesture in the grand scheme of things but at least it is something. Just because it's almost pointless doesn't mean we shouldn't even try.

Regarding clothes, clothes are absolutely worthless once the tag is cut off. The planet is drowning in unused clothes and synthetic fabrics are fairly complicated to recycle.
Clothes do not have resale value. I'm quite conscious when buying clothes, I try to avoid synthetic fabrics for the most part and I buy very very little because I don't wanna have a wardrobe full of "nothing to wear".
When I had my second child I decided to not buy everything but get stuff second hand. I bought 90% of the clothes from people that hopelessly overbought. A lot of the things still had tags on. I remember paying 20 Euro for a big bin liners full of almost new clothes on several occasions and every single mother I bought from said they spent stupid money on the stuff and they regret it.
We should all encourage our family and friends to be more aware of what we buy to put on. You can only wear one pair of pants and one pair of shoes at the same time. We don't need 20.

Same with toys and presents, I always try to encourage people to either chip in for one "big" present or buy the kids something they actually need. Even though we're barely buying toys we have so many.

Gotta start somewhere.

I'd also have no problem giving up comfort in order to produce less waste.

Blaizes

Yes (such waste reduced by 25%)

Yes absolutely agree with you since having kids I find there is so much stuff around and far too many toys.Birthday parties don't help if one child gets invited to twelve parties per year for example that's at least ten new toys. We're drowning as a society in stuff we don't actually need. Before kids and when I was single it was far easier to be a minimalist. But I'm going to get back to it and clothes are another thing as you say far too many floating around due to mass production and some of very poor quality, one wash and ready for the bin.I try to buy better quality items as well that will last and go well through the wash. I enjoyed clothes shopping before but in recent years I can see that it is all a con and money drain.I hate trying on stuff in crowded shops and going though rails and rails of clothes.

Graces7

Yes (such waste reduced by 25%)

My wartime generation could teach a lot.. We wasted nothing. And the habits die hard. Old clothes end up as dusters and floor cloths. Paper waste lights the fire. Cardboard goes on the vegetable patch to mulch down. Turf ashes are cat litter....

The plastic milk cartons with the tops off make excellent planters. And they make great bird feeders and nest boxes. Leave the tops ready to put back on to make mini greenhouses..

Of course we had rationing. Limited all we bought.
Saving coupons for a new dress..

Cloth /string shopping bags. etc etc etc

CalamariFritti

Yes (such waste reduced by 25%)

Haylee Loose Tailpipe wrote: »

Capitalism means you can buy what you need with ease, it means people can set up their own businesses, it means competitive prices - capitalism doesn't just mean greed and hyper consumerism.

But I agree the waste at Christmas is crazy and the amount of packaging is also.

But the problem with capitalism is that its all about the profit and nothing else and there is virtually no constraint and no other rationale. So we invent sh1t that nobody needs just to sell it and nobody cares how much resources it takes to make it and what happens to it after. Ability to make money with it is all the justification it needs.
On top of it capitalism requires constant growth meaning we have to go through sh1t at an ever increasing rate just to keep going. Add to that population growth and you know this isn't going to end well.
Only when resources start to actually run out and our seas and lands are fvcked up we will look back and say wtf we were going through stuff like crazed junkies. We as a species as a society are actually behaving like crazed junkies.

Capitalism has brought us prosperity but it has also perverted itself and has some inherent flaws. The major one being that there just isn't an infinite amount of resources to use and landscapes to lay to waste.

mad muffin

Yes (such waste reduced by 25%)

Odelay wrote: »

Maybe instead of buying new, buy some of the kids presents in a thrift shop?

Even better. Why don’t you make it yourself from bits of shït people have dumped?

Blaizes

Yes (such waste reduced by 25%)

Plus we have lot of cheap junk coming from China.For example I couldn't find my good computer mouse and bought a one euro fifty one.Well one bang on the floor and there it was in bits. Whereas the good one might have withstood the bang on the floor.But there you go my fault for buying the cheap one but the good products that you pay more for will probably last longer in the long run and is worth the extra money and won't be clogging up landfill after a single use.

Andrewf20

People these days loves convenience more than ever, due in part to the fact we seem to be more busy. The hassle of bringing bananas over to be weighted and then to print a sticker is often trumped by just grabbing a bag of them with a bar code on it.

The packaging thing has started to get to me also. Such a waste. I'm making an effort to buy loose veg now.

Kids are getting so many toys now at Xmas etc that they hardly appreciate half of them.

Blaizes

Yes (such waste reduced by 25%)

Andrewf20 wrote: »

People these days loves convenience more than ever, due in part to the fact we seem to be more busy. The hassle of bringing bananas over to be weighted and then to print a sticker is often trumped by just grabbing a bag of them with a bar code on it.

The packaging thing has started to get to me also. Such a waste. I'm making an effort to buy loose veg now.

Kids are getting so many toys now at Xmas etc that they hardly appreciate half of them.

That's it though people are so busy...

Dravokivich

Change has to come from the producer. I can only get what's in the shop. We should not fill the green bin every 2 weeks. Its just passing the buck on.

Capt'n Midnight

Fr_Dougal wrote: »

Stop having kids.

questionmark?

Yes (such waste reduced by 25%)

Plastic waste for food products is completely over the top and it's the one that fills your bin every week. For example you want some tomatoes but you get six in a plastic tray wrapped in non recyclable plastic wrap. Why is that necessary? Just have them loose buy as many as you need and put them into a bio degradable bag (like supervalue are doing) It's the same across most food products just excess packaging waste everywhere.

Graces7

Yes (such waste reduced by 25%)

questionmark? wrote: »

Plastic waste for food products is completely over the top and it's the one that fills your bin every week. For example you want some tomatoes but you get six in a plastic tray wrapped in non recyclable plastic wrap. Why is that necessary? Just have them loose buy as many as you need and put them into a bio degradable bag (like supervalue are doing) It's the same across most food products just excess packaging waste everywhere.

To protect the produce from being mauled and damaged. Tomatoes are fragile. And too many fingers handling them.

CelticRambler

Tomatoes are dead easy to grow in your garden; no packaging need come anywhere near them ... :cool:

kneemos

We can do a bit I suppose,but...


https://www.google.com/search?q=pollution+in+third+world&client=ms-android-huawei&prmd=inv&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiHnr7F5NjfAhX3WRUIHZJWBEUQ_AUoAXoECA0QAQ&biw=360&bih=524#imgrc=yphpeTqEdnvuHM

dudara

Yes (such waste reduced by 25%)

questionmark? wrote: »

Plastic waste for food products is completely over the top and it's the one that fills your bin every week. For example you want some tomatoes but you get six in a plastic tray wrapped in non recyclable plastic wrap. Why is that necessary? Just have them loose buy as many as you need and put them into a bio degradable bag (like supervalue are doing) It's the same across most food products just excess packaging waste everywhere.

Unfortunately thin film plastic is not recycable in Ireland, so it can’t go in the green bin (even though it is technically possible to recycle it). Just more rubbish for the bin.

And a lot of people don’t realise that recyclables should be placed loose in the bin e.g. not in bags. If it’s too hard to sort recyclables, they’re often just dumped into the general waste.

YFlyer

In Lidl the organic fairtrade bananas are wrapped in a paperband while elsewhere they're in plastic bags. How is that?

jester77

I always get the frustration-free packaging when ordering something. Less plastic and the cardboard can easily be recycled by putting it in the paper bin for collection.

jester77

CelticRambler wrote: »

Tomatoes are dead easy to grow in your garden; no packaging need come anywhere near them ... :cool:

I grow tomatoes in my garden, the problem is you only have a supply for a small part of the year. Albeit they are better than anything you will find in a supermarket. Same for berries.

CelticRambler

jester77 wrote: »

I grow tomatoes in my garden, the problem is you only have a supply for a small part of the year. Albeit they are better than anything you will find in a supermarket. Same for berries.

And that's where preserving comes in! Re-using glass bottles and jars, instead of recycling them, thus saving all the energy needed to collect, crush and re-process them into something new.

SonNo.1 came back from Dublin with a proposal for eliminating soft "unrecyclable" plastic (mainly the film that wraps six-packs of cardboard cartons, etc. :mad: ) from our recyclables: compress it into plastic bottles to make ecobricks. So far, we've got nearly a fortnight's plastic wrapping into just one bottle.

kneemos

CelticRambler wrote: »

And that's where preserving comes in! Re-using glass bottles and jars, instead of recycling them, thus saving all the energy needed to collect, crush and re-process them into something new.

SonNo.1 came back from Dublin with a proposal for eliminating soft "unrecyclable" plastic (mainly the film that wraps six-packs of cardboard cartons, etc. :mad: ) from our recyclables: compress it into plastic bottles to make ecobricks. So far, we've got nearly a fortnight's plastic wrapping into just one bottle.

Takes more energy to recycle glass bottles apparently than produce new cartons.

Earthhorse

No one decides whether to have kids or not based on environmental concerns or at least not enough to make a difference. People aren't going to stop having kids, it's a huge biological urge, and sort of like abstaining from sex to avoid pregnancy it sidesteps the issue rather than addressing it.

questionmark? wrote: »

Plastic waste for food products is completely over the top and it's the one that fills your bin every week. For example you want some tomatoes but you get six in a plastic tray wrapped in non recyclable plastic wrap. Why is that necessary? Just have them loose buy as many as you need and put them into a bio degradable bag (like supervalue are doing) It's the same across most food products just excess packaging waste everywhere.

This is where we can make huge improvements. I think we're going to see a shift at some point to people bringing containers to supermarkets to refill from their supply; for example, cereals, shampoos etc. The truth is we do need packaging for a lot of stuff but there are more sustainable ways to manage it.

paulbok

Yes (such waste reduced by 25%)

CelticRambler wrote: »

Tomatoes are dead easy to grow in your garden; no packaging need come anywhere near them ... :cool:

How are they growing today for you?

CelticRambler

paulbok wrote: »

How are they growing today for you?

They're not (but I think you knew that ... )

But there's no reason to be eating (fresh) tomatoes when there's plenty of other fruit available.

Unless, of course, you're someone who pays no attention to seasonality and insists on buying/eating things that have to be grown under artificial conditions or shipped in from the far side of the world, in which case buying a few grammes of plastic packaging is the least of your consumerist sins. :rolleyes:

LirW

Yes (such waste reduced by 25%)

CelticRambler wrote: »

And that's where preserving comes in! Re-using glass bottles and jars, instead of recycling them, thus saving all the energy needed to collect, crush and re-process them into something new.

SonNo.1 came back from Dublin with a proposal for eliminating soft "unrecyclable" plastic (mainly the film that wraps six-packs of cardboard cartons, etc. :mad: ) from our recyclables: compress it into plastic bottles to make ecobricks. So far, we've got nearly a fortnight's plastic wrapping into just one bottle.

Funnily enough, there was a pilot project with ecobricks building homeless accommodation with them, pretty cheap. I think it was somewhere in central America.
An awful lot of people from the US complained because they're concerned about the fumes that might come from them in warm weather.

You really can't win and make people happy.

kneemos

CelticRambler wrote: »

They're not (but I think you knew that ... )

But there's no reason to be eating (fresh) tomatoes when there's plenty of other fruit available.

Unless, of course, you're someone who pays no attention to seasonality and insists on buying/eating things that have to be grown under artificial conditions or shipped in from the far side of the world, in which case buying a few grammes of plastic packaging is the least of your consumerist sins. :rolleyes:

What fruit is available?

Dakota Dan

Yes (such waste reduced by 25%)

Fr_Dougal wrote: »

Stop having kids.

3 posts in and the over population nuts have arrived :rolleyes:

Dakota Dan

Yes (such waste reduced by 25%)

Graces7 wrote: »

My wartime generation could teach a lot.. We wasted nothing. And the habits die hard. Old clothes end up as dusters and floor cloths. Paper waste lights the fire. Cardboard goes on the vegetable patch to mulch down. Turf ashes are cat litter....

The plastic milk cartons with the tops off make excellent planters. And they make great bird feeders and nest boxes. Leave the tops ready to put back on to make mini greenhouses..

Of course we had rationing. Limited all we bought.
Saving coupons for a new dress..

Cloth /string shopping bags. etc etc etc

Exactly, it's over consumerism not over population.

CalamariFritti

Yes (such waste reduced by 25%)

Dakota Dan wrote: »

3 posts in and the over population nuts have arrived :rolleyes:

You don't think there is such a thing? We could grow to 10, 20, 30 billion not a problem?

LirW

Yes (such waste reduced by 25%)

While babies are amongst the worst offenders with their baby-related rubbish, with a bit of effort you can drastically cut down the environmental impact of your child.
Nappies are incredibly bad, there's a good re-usable alternative though. Same goes for wipes.
More food from scratch so you save tons of packaging. Re-use toys, get the stuff second hand, same goes for clothes. Buy cotton clothes and avoid synthetic fabrics. Use bamboo plates and cups instead of hard plastic.

The western world has a lot of convenience products for children, every parent would do good to be more conscious about what they buy and what the children actually need.

Dakota Dan

Yes (such waste reduced by 25%)

CalamariFritti wrote: »

You don't think there is such a thing? We could grow to 10, 20, 30 billion not a problem?

The population of Europe is dropping and aging and it's the poorer countries that are increasing population. In fairness there isn't a hope in hell of 30 billion unless we all start breeding like rabbits.

quietsailor

Earthhorse wrote: »

This is where we can make huge improvements. I think we're going to see a shift at some point to people bringing containers to supermarkets to refill from their supply; for example, cereals, shampoos etc. The truth is we do need packaging for a lot of stuff but there are more sustainable ways to manage it.

Its already starting. You can go to the Quay co op shop in cork city centre to refill your Ecover washing liquids.

There's another shop that does it out in Clonakilty https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.irishexaminer.com/ireland/olives-refill-station-aims-to-cut-down-on-use-of-plastics-469495.html

Its slow starting but its happening

Day Lewin

The only way to discourage packaging is to just NOT BUY STUFF that is in packets.

It's not as hard as you might think!

Get fruit and veg at greengrocer, loose: do not purchase plastic items made in factories and imported. This includes food, of course, and toys.

Local products in sustainable materials are the best choice for this lovely planet.

Just say No.

rtron

Yes (such waste reduced by 25%)

I've saved up all the plastic packaging from Xmas presents and will feed it to the whales on my next visit to the sea. Apparently they love eating it according to news reports this year.
That should help cut down to on the waste.

Franz Von Peppercorn

Yes (such waste reduced by 25%)

CalamariFritti wrote: »

You don't think there is such a thing? We could grow to 10, 20, 30 billion not a problem?

The world population is trending towards stability (and then a fall) at about 10B

CelticRambler

kneemos wrote: »

What fruit is available?

Apples and pears, mainly, and nuts of various kinds. Plus whatever you threw in the freezer and/or dried, bottled or made into jam during the summer glut ... :cool: My Christmas guests have been gorging themselves on a fig and apricot chutney made last February from the 2017 harvest.

Ger Roe

Going back to the original question posed - Would you support moves to drastically reduce packaging?

The obvious issue here is, what moves in particular?. I have been recycling for years only to find that my need to do so and the level of segregation required has increased dramatically, it is also extremely disappointing to note that as a nation we don't actually recycle, we export our waste materials.

Drastic change needs to be enforced from the top down. I can only buy what is offered to me in whatever container it comes. The idea that the last person in the chain has to solve the entire problem by 'recycling' is crazy and the fact that I am ending up recycling more and more material, despite my best efforts just highlights that truth.

Why do we allow non recyclable materials into the country?. Why do we not have a government led approach to eliminate the use of mixed packaging?. Why do we not tell people to crush cans and reduce the number of journeys then required to recycle them?. We don't we recycle our own waste instead of exporting it all? Why do we subsidise the waste industry to export our waste while we have made no effort to reduce the amount of potential waste coming into the country in the first place? Why is waste management still in the realm of the local authorities, resulting in big variations in the services and facilities available - this is a national issue, the standard of waste management service provision should not be dependent on your geographical location or local council budget or policy.

I know the reasons of course, the consumer is an easy target for taxes and levies because in the end it doesn't matter how much material or energy is wasted as long as someone (us) pays for it. It's easier to tax than to reform and it's best not to put any pressure on big corporations for fear that we won't be seen as a great little country to do business in. Just watch for the introduction of carbon tax shortly, we will all be punished for using resources for which by and large we have no alternative, because our overlords have been doing nothing to develop alternatives apart from setting up various quangoes to monitor and lecture us, when we, as end line consumers, are powerless pawns in the game.

CelticRambler

CalamariFritti wrote: »

You don't think there is such a thing? We could grow to 10, 20, 30 billion not a problem?

Nope. The world's population is trending towards stabilising at around 11bn, and that's in the face of a rapidly declining birth rate. Have a look at Hans Rosling's work (e.g. this video) and how the real problem facing the world is old people - the worst offenders when it comes to excessive consumption of the world's resources.

Healthcare for the over fifties - including all those individually wrapped, single-use medical products - produces an enormous amount of waste (and costs the ever-declining population of able-bodied working taxpayers a fortune) ... but that's a whole other discussion.