Packaging you hate

Vacuum packaging. It is so closely stuck to the item that you can nearly cut your fingers off trying to open it.
And Blossoming - I agree about the pill packaging. How I long for the days when they came in little bottles. I struggle to open them with my fingers and the supposed helpful pill openers often break them tablets inside in half !!

I'm with Sago on the shrink-wrapped cucumbers - it drives me mad and I've complained several times to Sainsbury's - when I was still visiting the supermarket before lockdown, cucumbers were on the shelves with a sticker on them if they were organic - just the same as the old Fyffes banana stickers - easily identifiable and removed. I can't quite remember when it happened but the cucumbers started turning up in my online shop covered in plastic, so I changed from organic to non-organic thinking this would be different - sadly no. As I juice a cucumber every day with other things, I buy seven at a time and unfortunately, apart from all the dreadful damage to the environment, the cucumbers begin to sweat and degrade. Wondering whether all supermarkets torture their cucumbers and the world in this way? I know that farm drop services don't do this.

I shop in sainsburys for my fruit. Vegetables or any fresh products as they offer white net bags which are washable and more environmental friendly, I personally avoid plastic like the plague,

Germanshepherdsmum

All the above plus the childproof boxes Bold pods come in. They’re completely adult-proof as well.

Oh, how I agree - all those pod packs are as bad.

I stopped using them some time ago, after reading how they gum up your machine with gunk. Now I just use powder - no plastic! - and soda crystals.

Absolutely agree!

Toothbrush packaging is impossible to open, drives me nuts.

Most of it. It is very slowly improving though. What annoys me is when the cost of loose Brussel sprouts is triple the cost of a large plastic bag of them. I don't need a large bag as there's only two of us, just throw the rest in the compost. Such a waste or pay well over the top for enough sprouts for two. Probably different in the UK. Its the only veg it seems to affect, no idea why.

I often shop in the organic/health shop we have here. Prices are not too bad and less packaging or recycleable. As I have arthritis I find most packaging difficult to open.

TeacherAnne it sounds like the Spice Tailor ones to me.
I don't seem to have a problem with these to be honest but I do use scissors.

MrsPickle

Sometimes, I like a nice convenience curry sauce.
The ones that come in 3 sachets, enclosed by the instructions, stapled together at the top by a fancy round 'staple'.
I'm sure the makers don't think anyone over the age of 30 will be using them, but, oh boy, getting them opened without losing half the contents is very tedious.

That's my pet hate, but I'm sure there are more...

Is this the one made by Patak? I love the kit but agree it is a challenge to open the sachets without spilling something! I only found it at the start of lockdown when my usual food stuff were unavailable but I’m pleased that I did buy some. The Tikka Masala one is delicious, I use chicken breast and add mushrooms and a few sultanas or almonds to it.

Bloody pill packets that don’t want to pop out my meds!

ayse

Those hard plastic bubbles that require a good tough pair of scissors to get into them and they’re not recyclable. So called resealable packets that don’t reseal. Double plastic wrappings that are huge for the item.

I’m sure there are more. It’s so frustrating.

Yes, dreadful way of packaging! I've actually cut myself a number of times in the past.

All this tough packaging is a direct result of self-service supermarkets where customers handle goods unsupervised, and is necessary to deter people changing labels, opening packets to sample and /or add extra contents, (saw a woman once trying to force an extra egg into a dozen box) or worse still, contaminate the contents. Our local supermarket had a spate of teenagers opening packets of biscuits, sweets and cereal , eating part of the contents then replacing on the shelf.
So funny.

Trying to open a new pack of toothbrushes.

All the above plus the childproof boxes Bold pods come in. They’re completely adult-proof as well.

At least Tesco will now recycle the plastic net from oranges, Findingnemo15, and the label. For some reason they haven't yet accepted the red nets from plums and nectarines, but at least it's a start. I've been carefully sweeping up the orange little bits and putting them in a plastic bag, all ready to be recycled with carrier bags when it's full. What fun!

With you 100% on glitter too.

When I buy nets of satsumas, tangerines etc. and the usually orange net leaves loads of little bits all over the place.

Reminds me of glitter on greetings cards - can't stand it!

A lot of packages these days are wrapped in something like black clingfilm. It is almost impossible to get into, especially when, like me, you can't remember what the contents will be, and worry about cutting into it.

Ring pull cans like tomatoes where the ring pull comes off before the can is open.
Also, all the paper and card used by online sales, someone I know lives in the States and her area they have an Amazon box day where they come for all the card and paper so much is used.

The slab of cheese in the bag where you cut along the dotted line..
The result is the bit you hold to 'pull apart' is so narrow you (I) cant grip it!!

I also hate one particular brand of recycled paper packaging that smells like muckspreading ?

Agree with all above... But for me as well...
Sticky labels on anything! you buy a gift and the label won't come off. Drives me nuts!

Another one for vegetables that are sold it plastic wrap! Also means now that I’m a household of two, the large packets I have to purchase go off before we can use them, instead of selecting just what we require. I now go out of my way to a small Turkish vege stand the next village over.

I think that a lot of packaging these days is not designed to be opened easily. I really don't know how people with arthritic hands can manage most of it. I think we should campaign against it, especially plastic.

It’s the amount of packaging I hate, I don’t buy my veg from supermarkets but they bag up bananas, shrink wrap cucumbers etc.
Unnecessary packaging is sinful.

Those hard plastic bubbles that require a good tough pair of scissors to get into them and they’re not recyclable. So called resealable packets that don’t reseal. Double plastic wrappings that are huge for the item.

I’m sure there are more. It’s so frustrating.