this coming saturday(16 June)is World refill day.

This coming Saturday is 15th June - my birthday!

You could recycle your birthdays, dragonfly46 and stay the same age for however long you wanted to. Happy birthday when it comes!

I would love to be able to refill things locally. I do buy large bottles of laundry liquid and other cleaning things, and large tins of instant coffee, all from Natural Collection, which means I can refill smaller containers. It would be fine to have one of these shops where you can take things to be refilled, but there isn't one anywhere near here, as far as I can see.

We used to have a refill shop near us but it didn't last long.

MiL in Sunderland used to buy lots of her cereals, flours, etc for baking at a 'weigh shop' (I think that's what she used to call it). So she only bought what she would use and took her own containers to weigh it into. Don't think any of those exist anymore.

Given that paper can be made out of elephant dung, I think we ought to be able to solve the problem of food contaminated cardboard.

Saturday is the 15th.
Sunday, the 16th is Father’s Day.

Which is World Refill Day?

A great deal of the waste that comes into our homes is a result of over-packaging. I bought some biscuits from a well known supermarket and they were in a cardboard container. I was surprised to find each biscuit was individually wrapped
inside the container. They were small shortbreads.

I tried a 'weigh shop' a while ago and had to give up as everything I bought turned out to be stale and inedible.

I am not saying that the consumer is blameless and of course, most of us could do more.

Not sure how I put in the Saturday 16th of June.

Re-fill day is on Fathers day Sunday 16th June,
sorry, am I forgiven?

Bumface

A great deal of the waste that comes into our homes is a result of over-packaging. I bought some biscuits from a well known supermarket and they were in a cardboard container. I was surprised to find each biscuit was individually wrapped
inside the container. They were small shortbreads.

I tried a 'weigh shop' a while ago and had to give up as everything I bought turned out to be stale and inedible.

I am not saying that the consumer is blameless and of course, most of us could do more.

Cellophane biscuit wrappers and carboard are both re-cyclable.

Co-op supermarkets now collect cellophane/scrunchy polythene wrappers of all kinds. Perhaps others do too?

Shortbread breaks easily.

I make cakes, cut them into pieces, wrap them in cling-film and freeze them. The cake then lasts me for as many days as there are pieces. The cling-film is recycled.

AreWeThereYet

We used to have a refill shop near us but it didn't last long.

MiL in Sunderland used to buy lots of her cereals, flours, etc for baking at a 'weigh shop' (I think that's what she used to call it). So she only bought what she would use and took her own containers to weigh it into. Don't think any of those exist anymore.

The refill shops are excellent, but they are not cheap. I suppose it costs so much to fit them out with all the hygienic containers and dispensers and so on that they have to charge rates to cover their capital costs. Once upon a time the shopkeeper would just scoop out a measure from a sack into a paper bag, or into the customer's own jar.

All good suggestions infoman. Is the food-contaminated paper recyclable? Is grease the problem?

I have a bus pass - if only we had a bus….

Water bottles!

Baggs

I make cakes, cut them into pieces, wrap them in cling-film and freeze them. The cake then lasts me for as many days as there are pieces. The cling-film is recycled.

Can I add cling film to the bread bags that I return to a supermarket? I do try to avoid using cling film but the more I try to freeze food the more cling film I end up using. I do try to repurpose as much as possible.

Tesco also collect soft/scrunchy plastics, although I discovered at my local refuse tip a few months ago that both Tesco and Co-op actually send all the plastics they collect to the tip for incineration after they've weighed it.
Apparently, these supermarkets do this so they can say they collected x amount of soft plastics and they have sent them away to be used to create 'renewable fuel/power'.
Apparently, the 5 refuse tips across Birmingham 'create' power by burning our rubbish, which is then sold to the power companies as 'renewable'.
I was told that in 2023, burning our rubbish had created enough power to run all the electricity for half of the homes in the city.
I've now stopped separating my soft plastics and making a special journey to one of the supermarkets to get rid of it, and now just include it with my normal, burnable rubbish which goes straight to the tip.

An lot of plastic can be recycled, and much of what cannot is being phased out.

I only shop in supermarkets that only use recyclable plastic for dairy products and meat which are the things commonly sold in plastic.

All plastic bottles here are recycable and many you pay a deposit on which is refunded when you hand the bottles in again.

I have said it before, but will say it again - the deposit system makes people more interested in not throwing plastic down any old where. Not, of course, in the interest of the environment, but because they get money back.

Some people don't bother, but then someone who is living on social security, or is homeless will come along and collect the empties, as they do need the small amount that is refunded.

If you are buying anything made of plastic, and let's be honest, we nearly all do occasionally, make sure it was made of recycled plastic.

And if it really does n ot pay to clean cardboard food containers so the cardboard can be re-used, it should be collected seperately, and burned in a commercial facility that channels the heat generated to the district heating plant - problem solved!

Harmonypuss

Tesco also collect soft/scrunchy plastics, although I discovered at my local refuse tip a few months ago that both Tesco and Co-op actually send all the plastics they collect to the tip for incineration after they've weighed it.
Apparently, these supermarkets do this so they can say they collected x amount of soft plastics and they have sent them away to be used to create 'renewable fuel/power'.
Apparently, the 5 refuse tips across Birmingham 'create' power by burning our rubbish, which is then sold to the power companies as 'renewable'.
I was told that in 2023, burning our rubbish had created enough power to run all the electricity for half of the homes in the city.
I've now stopped separating my soft plastics and making a special journey to one of the supermarkets to get rid of it, and now just include it with my normal, burnable rubbish which goes straight to the tip.

Sadly much of the 'recycling' does not get recycled, especially when people don't sort it properly so loads are contaminated. I try to be meticulous in the sorting but I know my neighbours' recycling bin is often overflowing with unacceptable items so it;s possible that I'm wasting my time sorting carefully.

i try to buy refills of things such as liquid soap etc and try to avoid overpackaged items but I'm far from perfect. However if we all do what we can, every little helps.

Many more items should be incinerated in order to create energy. However, NIMBY activists stop this procedure by vindictively protesting. Modern incinerators do not emit noxious fumes. Why can't they grasp this? Landfill is much, much worse.

At first glance I thought this was one of those “The world is coming to an end next Saturday” predictions we used to regularly get !

Haven’t seen one for years though now I come to think about it, although of course the Just Stop Everything lunatics are still convinced we are all dooomed !

As far as plastic goes, my number one complaint is bottled water. Really? I have a water container with me at all times, which I fill from the fridge. Come on people!