| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| Tittch |
Just dumped my excess packaging at Sainsbury's :-)And suggested that maybe they need to have a dedicated Dump bin in place if they were going to insist on over wrapping their items. There's a Dump Your Packaging Protest Day afoot in the Autumn mooted by various eco groups so maybe supermarkets will start to think... |
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| Barefoot Andrew |
There are some practicality issues, but this ostensibly seems a very good idea to me. I may do it myself on my next visit. As well as something positive, like buying some pouches for the cat charity box they have at one end.
A. |
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| Frewen |
What was their reaction Tittch? | ||||||
| Fee |
I'm always tempted, but I feel too guilty for the people behind me in the queue.
Yeah, how did they react? 
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| earthyvirgo |
Re: Just dumped my excess packaging at Sainsbury's :-)
Brilliant:) I look forward to that. I already get a paddington stare and mutter from one of the check out ladies in my Tesco becasue I refuse to bag my fruit and veg She tells me it's unhygienic but really it's because it makes it awkward for her to weigh. EV |
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| Silas |
Is it supermarket packaging or manufacturers though?
I do agree that supermarkets should provide a waste skip for excess packaging, especially now that many of us have fortnightly refuse collections. |
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| judith |
Doesn't really matter. If it becomes a problem for the supermarkets, they will put pressure on the manufacturers. |
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| Silas |
Yes, I agree, but lets include ALL retailers then. |
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| judith |
Absolutely. |
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| Cho-ku-ri |
I agree, but a result will be more battered stock on the shelves. We must be prepared to buy, at full cost, items that are a little less than perfect. Leaving your waste in supermarket carpark bins is great too, because as a business. they have to pay the landfill tax on it. | ||||||
| Silas |
Nice avatar CKR - where d'ya get it? | ||||||
| Cho-ku-ri |
I drew it on paper, and scanned it into Paint to colour in. Thanks. | ||||||
| earthyvirgo |
Not necessarily. I've come across some really good recycled packaging which is far better than plastic and polystyrene. I wouldn't have thought it practical to get rid of all packaging in a supermarket situation.
Full marks to Homebase recently who ask if you want a bag and if you do it's a nice robust paper one. Staff could surely be easily educated not to mindlessly hand over plastic bags at the checkout, it could be a polite "do you have your own bag, or do you need ONE" sort of question. I noticed Ikea have stopped all checkout bagging ... which threw me a bit at my last visit I must admit, I was so used to their extremely handy large paper bags because they were great for paper recyling as the whole thing could go in or for kitchen veggie bits. EV |
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| Silas |
Its seriously good. Can yiou do one for me with a cyclopse on it? |
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| Tittch |
I was very careful and made sure that I didn't hold the queue up by doing it to one side. I also told the till lady what I was planning and she asked me to put the plastic wrappings into the Bag Recycling Bin near the checkout. She said that she would have a talk with their new manager about the issue. | ||||||
| Fee |
Cool I can understand some packaging, but bananas are now being shrink-wrapped, that's just daft.
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| earthyvirgo |
More people need to do this. Nothing will change if we don't make a stand AND let people see us making it.
EV ( ... and of course tutting at copious plastic bag users:) |
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| cab |
I'm in two minds about that. I wholeheartedly approve of people taking a stand on something they believe in, as I'm sure people here will know, but I can't help but think that this is rather tinkering around the edges of the problem.
A better solution would simply be not to buy anything that is overpackaged. The best solution would be to make a point of buying nothing (or as little as possible) in the supermarket. This all became quite obvious when I saw someone doing precisely this in a supermarket in Cambridge; unwrapping bags of onions, taking meat out of over-sized plastic tubs, etc. to make a point when they could more easily, cheaply, and sustainably bought the same things at the local market, 100 yards away and bustling with excellent produce. Okay, if you are going to get such goods in the supermarket then right on for doing this! It wouldn't be my preferred option though. |
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| earthyvirgo |
Fine if you live in an area which has a market, but not everyone has this choice.
When I was a student in Exeter, I invariably called in at the Market every morning on the way to college and did a lot of my shopping there but up here in Bangor, we have very little choice. VegPlot and I were discussing this on Sat morning, saying we should make an effort to try and buy from 'local shops' but to be honest our local fruit and veg shops on the whole, sell really tired, poor quality produce and it's all come in from Manchester and L'pool probably (or further afield). Our best option is one Farm Shop, but that's a drive of about 12 miles away, so whatever we do, there's a downside. Roll on Spring I say when the garden starts coming into it's own. EV |
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| Silas |
Some people do not have the luxury of a market as you describe. I can see the need for plastic tub packaging for meat on supermarket shelves, if only for hygene reasons, but there certainly shold be some facility for leaving excess packaging behind. |
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| cab |
And a hell of a lot have that 'luxury' but don't use it 
I'd rather visit the butchers counter and have it wrapped in waxed paper, if I had to buy meat in the supermarket. Certainly when you see the vast boxes with tiny little bits of meat in them, it just smacks of stupidity. Then you see someone open the big box and as often as not its wrapped again inside. |
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| earthyvirgo |
Just a silly one really, but don't you wonder why people put loose bananas in plastic bags? They already have their own wrapping.
And on a similar note, why do they choose bagged fruit, instead of choosing individual (normally a wee bit cheaper) loose ones? Is it an obsession with 'germs' that people appear to have!? Beats me. EV |
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| cab |
Onions, oranges, lemons... They pick them up, put them in a placcy bag. Why? Worse is when you see a swede or a cucumber pre-shrink wrapped in plastic. Why? I despair of supermarket packaging. I rekon that if we bought most of what we eat in supermarkets we'd probably more than than triple the amount of packaging we get. |
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| Silas |
Yes, some people will not use a perfectly good market - I agree. If you shop 'out of hours' in a supermarket, the butchery counter is very oftern closed so if you want that joint of pork, you have to buy pre-packed. They are nmot wrapped again inside the plastuic tubs. |
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| judith |
But you do have to struggle quite hard to prevent the cashier from putting the tub into a plastic bag. |
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| cab |
Our lodger bought some steak at a supermarket a while ago. Big placcy box. I watched as he opened it then pierced the protective inner shrink-wrap around the steak; there was a 'hiss' as air entered, then it changed colour (browning) over the next several minutes. Dreadful case of over packaging and dubious product to begin with. As for shopping out of hours in a supermarket... I can't help but think that you're doomed to dreadful produce from the outset if you don't engineer a weekend (or week day) trip to do proper shopping. I'm rather afraid that so many people that I know who don't find time to do so really could, they just don't prioritise that in their lives because they can instead shop late in the evening at some cruddy supermarket or other. |
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| Silas |
Well some people will deliberatly shop 'out of hours' because that is when all the real bargains are to be had, I admit to have done it myself on more than one occasion. | ||||||
| cab |
Wierd, isn't it? Some of them also seem to wrap bottles of milk in extra placcy bags; you take the milk bottle out, they take the bag and chuck it under the counter to be disposed of. |
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| Silas |
When we were in Ireland last year we bought their own re-usable bags ( they don't have plastic carrier bags there any more) and they are really good. They are BIG and very strong. Instead of using a dozen or so plastic carrier bags, we now use four of these and it is much better for everyone ( except carrier bag manufactureres obviously) |
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| pookie |
I also do this as my daughter needs picking up at 7pm when she finishes work and rather than make two trips into town I pick up a few items then. It saves on time, fuel and so is more environmentally friendly. |
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| Sarah D |
M&S are going to charge their food customers 5p for plastic bags in the near future I heard on the radio this morning. The leaving packaging on the supermarket belt thing has been going on for eyars - WEN, and the WI a couple of years back. I do it all the time, and dont; put bananas etc into bags at all. Another advantage of shopping small and local is that the staffget to know you and your bags, packing system, packaging preferences etc. | ||||||
| Silas |
M&S would be better saying that the 5ps will be donated to some environmental charity or other. | ||||||
| cab |
From Auntie:
See: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7268283.stm |
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| Barefoot Andrew |
I had loaded my items on the checkout conveyor thingie yesterday when I realised I'd forgotten something. Nipped to get it, and on my return the checkout chappie had "helpfully" started packing for me. Soon whipped the shopping out of the bags and left the latter for a subsequent shopper. A. |
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| crofter |
"It should also help the environment, according to Groundwork, an environmental charity that is working with M&S. “Not only will this scheme reduce the amount of food carrier bags sent to landfill sites but it will also help improve the quality of life in towns and cities across the country,” said Tony Hawkhead, chief executive of Groundwork." |
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| Barefoot Andrew |
Re: Just dumped my excess packaging at Sainsbury's :-)Oh and...
... I might be tempted to politely but firmly point out that as the paying customer I'll decide what's best thanks... 
A. |
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| Silas |
Wow, all credit to them for reading my post and acting so quickly! 
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| kevin.vinke |
Perfectly normal here. Lidle have a big bin as you exit so you can dump all the excess packaging before you go home. There is also a box for used batteries. All bottles plastic or otherwise have a return value so there are machines you put them into and get your money back. Even the oil you buy for the car can be taken back to the shop. All bags have to be bought so most people have cloth shopping bags or Baskets.
Well done for pushing the point 
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| Fee |
Seriously, the fair trade nanas are now coming shrink-wrapped. Bloody ridiculous. On the note about shopping, we don't really have any decent market around here. There's the Tuesday Farnborough market, which I do go to sometimes, but it's a bit crud. My meat comes from the butcher, veg comes from both farm shop and supermarket (in winter). And I tend to go and do my big shop at about 7.15am, after I've dropped Paul off at the station, so I'm one of the 'out of hours' shoppers. I love shopping at the time of day, I pretty much get the place to myself. Of course I would much rather go to a good market and get what I need there, our nearest Farmers market comes to Hartley Wintney (used to come to Farnborough once every couple of months, but not any more), and the next one is at the end of September!!! Anyway, I HATE shopping in supermarkets when it's busy, it makes me mad...never a good thing. I suppose I could go to Blackbushe market on a Sunday, but you have to pay to get in
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| JB |
I'll plead guilty to doing that when it is loose items that need to be weighed. So I'll bag mushrooms because weighing a kilo of loose mushrooms would be problematic (I can just see them going everywhere). The problem is when there isn't a choice; if there are no loose peppers then I have to buy them in a bag; at which point regardless of not getting a single carrier bag I still end up with a load of plastic. |
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| Andrea |
I reuse the bags & take them back the next time. |
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| Andrea |
And all they seem to sell is leggings for people with big bums. Horrid place. |
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| Barefoot Andrew |
I have them rolling around the shopping trolley
A. |
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| ksia |
There was a report on the french news at lunchtime saying that because we no longer have carrier bags here more people buy bin bags, in particular the cheaper non-bio ones.
Sorry, can't remember any numbers but it's an interesting (if sad) result. |
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| cab |
They have mushrooms in shops now? How quaint
I see why that might be an idea with shrooms (although never, never a plastic bag), its the other items that are quite needlessly wrapped that bother me. |
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| Barefoot Andrew |
A. |
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| Stacey |
I felt a bit sorry for the woman on the checkout at morrisons the other day. The man 2 people in front of me was arguing with her and saying 'But they're already wrapped, I don't want them in an extra bag. It's meant to smell like that' as she waved the pack of fish about and made him sniff it. Then the woman in front of me declined any carrier bags because she had a box in the car. By the time I got to the counter the cashier was pulling plastic bags out and 'fluffing them up' in a really agitated way. I felt pretty guilty saying I didn't want one as I only had a few items
She looked really flustered and as if her 'plastic bag handing out' module was about to burn out
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| Stacey |
And another bag related whinge - if you use your own bags in tesco you get green clubcard points but if you don't use any bags at all you don't get anything 
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| Snowball |
It is policy in Morrisons for the cashier to open 3 plastic bags for each customer. It is also policy to put all meat and fish in small plastic bags. They are monitored and get in trouble if they break the rules.
I always ask if they want bags and if they want meat or fish put in smaller ones. More and more people are saying no, which is encouraging. You can get a customer comment card from the customer services desk, it is worth filling one in. It goes first to the manager and then to head office. If enough customers make comments, then they look at it, it is the only way to change policy. |