Easter Egg packaging and the environment...?

sporina

isle and isle of Easter eggs on offer in supermarkets.. how can this be happening, in the times we are in?

L1011

? Did you intend to link something?

Most consumer grade easter eggs have moved to foil (easily recyclable) and cardboard (easily recyclable) for some years now. Its only the higher end ones that are drowning in plastic film, semi-hard plastic protective shells, plastic ribbons, plastic everything under the sun.

magicbastarder

still, recycling is the least preferable in the 'reduce, reuse, recycle' trifecta.

i wonder were you to rank food items by the ratio of the weight of the packaging to the weight of the food, which would be the worst offenders.

Ubbquittious

The whole recyclable packaging thing went out the window with Covid. But tis all Ukraine & high fuel prices now so it will take a while to get back into vogue

sporina

@L1011 no....

so what - you think all that makes it ok???? I think NOT.

@magicbastarder yup..

its insane..

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118759901#Comment_118759901

What packaging do you suggest, then?

The products aren't going to go away.

magicbastarder

if you're concerned about the impactof easter eggs and their packaging on the environment, it's quite possible that you're looking in the wrong place when talking about the packaging anyway.

from a quick google, a 100g easter egg would be responsible for 500g of CO2 production, or the equivalent of driving 4 or 5km in a modern ICE car.

sporina

but there is no need for easter egg packaging to be so cardboard, plastic heavy;

transport is not as easy to do without

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118761375#Comment_118761375

There is no plastic in most of them these days, as already explained.

KieferFan69

#concern

magicbastarder

easter eggs are light, brittle items. they can't be transported loose in a box anyway.

the issue with easter eggs is the form of the egg itself rather than the packaging which follows on from that form.

sporina

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118761388#Comment_118761388

@L1011 i'm talking about the cardboard... "deforestation".. you might wanna wanna educate yourself

magicbastarder

you specifically mentioned plastic too.

sporina

in the current climate, one would have to ask, is there any need for them? no... "reduce, reuse, recycle".. so many turn a blind eye to the 1st 2 "r"s..

crazy world... all the efforts being made to reduce damage.. yet look at this needless waste etc.. tis like filling a bucket with a hole in the bottom of it... totally futile

miamee

Solid eggs would need less protection, i.e. less packaging. Or no eggs at all. The problem is the proliferation of cheap easter eggs as much as the packaging they are in. Where once you might have just bought them for your immediate family now they are so cheap people will buys tons of them.

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118761428#Comment_118761428

You very specifically mentioned plastic

Now, do you have an actual suggestion of a alternative?

patnor1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118761428#Comment_118761428

This environmental concern about impact of Easter eggs packaging would be funny if it was not outright stupid. Have a look at how many different types of water you can find in supermarkets in 500ml bottles all year long. Water. As if Ireland was in the middle of Sahara.

If you want to look cool regarding to sustainability and environmental issues you might wanna educate yourself before you start inventing issue which in grand scale of things is pretty much negligible.

magicbastarder

you know it's possible to be concerned about both at the same time?

sporina

don't have the time or inclination to argue with all of the comments made..

water in plastic bottle is obv also a culprit.. but people are aware of this and making efforts to curtail the use of em.. ie - using reusable water bottles etc..

Just like a lot of us have switched to reusable coffee cups etc.. to reduce use to disposable cardboard cups..

But in the same breath, no effort made to reduce further abuse/waste.. on the contrary.. seems to me that Easter Eggs have never been more plentyfull/cheaper.. was sickened in Tesco yday - isle and isles of them... twas shocking.. 3 for €3... ffs.. such rubbish/waste.. tonnes of cardboard...

Alternatives? scrap them... boil and egg and paint it..

It just makes no sense..

Rant over..

L1011

Environmental damage of that plastic paint going in to the bin (or contaminating composting) is likely far worse than some recyclable materials used as packaging. And it isn't an actual alternative as I strongly suspect you simply don't have one

sporina

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118764041#Comment_118764041

Who says I have to give an alternative? I'm not a packaging or environmental expert - but I know enough to know that what I saw in Tesco yday was so wrong... on so many levels.. the waste.. sheer criminal.. but in any case I did - I said, boil eggs.. they don't need to be painted..

L1011

Plain boiled eggs are not a replacement for easter eggs, frankly that's the most ridiculous suggestion I've seen on here in 20 years.

It appears you decided to have a rambling rant and can't actually even begin to provide a reasonable suggestion.

There have been huge changes in reducing or eliminating plastic from this packaging in recent years.

magicbastarder

ah come on, you have to admit that the way easter eggs are produced is wasteful; let alone the packaging, the sheer volume they take up means you probably have artic lorries full of the things hauling (random figure) one tenth the weight of produce they could probably handle.

the cheapo easter eggs weigh i think 120g - a bit over twice the weight of a 'normal' dairy milk bar, yet probably take up 20 or 30 times the volume.

and worst of all, they're probably that oily cheap tasting chocolate.

sporina

@L1011 guess you just can't see the bigger picture eh.. can you - no.. or rather, the woods from the trees... (excuse the pun).. v sad

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118765710#Comment_118765710

All Cadburys chocolate is the soy-based crud since Kraft took over.

But there is absolutely no way that you're going to convince people to replace them with boiled eggs (painted with plastic paints or not); or indeed anything else. And if the pricing was brought back up to the premium it once held, people would expect the frills - literally - in the form of single use plastic ribbons, plastic protective shells, fake grass, all the other crap that goes in to "premium easter eggs"

If seasonal chocolate is something worth targeting, selection boxes with their pointless plastic liners would be much higher up any list; or individually plastic wrapped ones like Roses/Heroes/Celebrations, or Valentines Day boxes with plastic flowers and ribbons on them, or indeed basically every other chocolate-based holiday product out there.

But this still seems like someone has decided to have a rant without any real idea of what they were ranting about - as we see with the OPs confusion over plastic; ranting about the one of many chocolate holiday products that have, generally, gone from a hideous plastic mess to very recyclable packaging in a very short period of time.

magicbastarder

All Cadburys chocolate is the soy-based crud since Kraft took over.

i'm currently tucking into a sharing bag of giant buttons, and they taste grand, and the ingredients list explicitly states milk as an ingredient - 23% is milk solids.

sporina

sporina

Took the above pic in Tesco the other day - 1 of 3 isles - and stacks of em all around the supermarket too..

hence my emphasis on cardboard!!!!!

shocking!!!!

crazy world we live in!

Sam Russell

The (cheap) eggs are sold as loss leaders. The fact that there are customer limits on the number permitted to be purchased shouts that out, and so, any environmental concerns are magnified by the increase in the number of items purchased because of the low (below cost) price charged.

By the way, the reduce, reuse, recycle, should include refuse (verb) - do not buy it in the first place, and then at the other end - if the waste cannot be recycled, then it ends up as refuse (noun) heading for land fill.

Cardboard can at least be composted or burnt for energy recovery. Some of the cheap chocolate is unfit to be eaten by anyone with working taste buds, made as much of it is with soya and palm oil. Personally, I cannot eat any Cadbury chocolate since it was taken over by the American outfit that now controls it - it has a nasty aftertaste.

sporina

I sent an email and attached the above pic to Eamon Ryan/Dept of ECCC... got a reply from a secretary - twill be brought to their attention..

Thats my bit done - no point me moaning without doing something proactive about it

Graces7

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118768292#Comment_118768292

We all need a treat now and then! I WISH I could get to Tesco!

I do have a pack of the small Cadbury eggs.... But just not the same. Please lighten up? These are hard times for folk.

sporina

@Graces7 gee you can have a treat without playing along with such a charade.. got my easter eggs from a local chocolate shop.. sustainable products with compostable wrapping..

lighten up??? are you aware of the state of our planet???

whisky_galore

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118768292#Comment_118768292

If people were actually serious about the world they leave for their kids, they wouldn't buy them for their kids.

The simple fact is most people don't care, don't want to think about it, or think "ah shur tis only one egg, what harm can it do?"

There are alternatives, or just do without. You won't die of hunger or freeze to death because you didn't buy a mass market, highly packaged, chocolate egg.

road_high

Fcuk sake, we can’t even have a bloody Easter egg now without the climate cult wanting them banned. What a shower of nutters

whisky_galore

Grrr grrr... dem nutters tuk ar eggs.

sporina

😔

So don't buy them, oh, and learn the difference between isle and aisle

sporina

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118933461#Comment_118933461

i won't

you think the ice caps know whether I spell it "isle" or "aisle"? I think not!

magicbastarder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118933461#Comment_118933461

'oh, you're anti war? Well then didn't go to war so! Ho ho ho I'm clever'

Good for you?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118933499#Comment_118933499

But its a different word and you are not dictating to an ice cap

jammiedodgers

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118933556#Comment_118933556

Careful now, they'll email Eamon Ryan about ya

Danno

Ah the headbanger greens off on another one again.

Cardboard is compostable.

Relax, that Amazon tree cut down to make a few hundred easter egg cartons will actually help raise our landmass once bio-degraded and thus warden off the effects of sea-level rise.

The plastic can be burned to heat the homes of the elderly who cannot burn turf anymore.

A win-win I say.

_Kaiser_

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118933499#Comment_118933499

You think it makes any difference what a small island nation of 5 million people do, or how much they give up for the social media feelz, while Putin wages war, China continues to build coal plants and the likes of the US and India do whatever they want?

Come back to me when those countries take it seriously.

Danno

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118933632#Comment_118933632

If only they wouldn't come back because those countries will never take it seriously. It'd be a peaceful Ireland if that advice was taken onboard.

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118933632#Comment_118933632

You have a point.

But all the same it is a shocking waste.

We could though lead by example.

magicbastarder

i don't buy the 'we're only a small island so what difference does it make' for a second. it's just an excuse not to bother.

in the end, you could just argue that every single person is an individual and individuals can do nothing. it's just a case of drawing the circle small enough to suit your argument. and for god's sake, it's easter eggs, we're not being asked not to heat our homes.

FWIW i was given a toffee crisp one the other day (from nestle, i think) and the chocolate was barely edible. so **** nestle easter eggs, they're barely worth eating let alone chopping down trees for.

ted1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118761375#Comment_118761375

All the somewhat expensive ones in Tesco today like lily o Briens, baileys etc had hard plastic to display the egg, except for lir. So I bough Lir.

sporina

the ignorance 😢

_Kaiser_

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118933680#Comment_118933680

Ireland is great at that alright - it's like a national inferiority and insecurity complex that constantly needs validation on the international stage - look at us... Aren't we progressive with our smoking ban, our shopping bag tax, look at how far we've come with an openly gay mixed race prime minister and same sex marriage etc etc.

Don't get me wrong, these are all good things certainly, but in reality no one cares what we do in Ireland no more than we care about the day to day goings on elsewhere (unless it's for reasons that make negative international headlines.. then we'll be all over it).

But in reality, it will make no difference how much we give up, how much we tax ourselves, how much we proclaim to be "doing the right thing" so long as far bigger countries with much larger populations continue with business as usual - and of course the costs of some of these measures continues to be glossed over in a country with massive national debt, serious infrastructural and services problems, and where many of the people are living month to month and struggling to pay their bills and keep the roof over their heads as it is.

So yes, I'm afraid I don't believe that Ireland with its population of less than most major cities crucifying itself on the altar of environmental crusading will do anything to help anyone, not least the planet.