Toothpaste and tomato paste packaging

I buy Tesco own brand fluoride toothpaste, no box with it, just the tube.

Stacking on the shelves is usually the reason.

I wish both could be packaged in a way that doesn’t give rise to so much waste,

Stumped me too. Maybe I’ll. gat around to writing to Colgate one day!

Tomato puree tubes are sealed with an end that has to be pierced. Also the tubes seem metallic.

The toothpaste tubes I buy are soft plastic and not sealed except with a screw on lid so a box keeps them safer from contamination by people unscrewing the lids to see what colour the paste is, or to taste/sniff it.

Plus, as someone said, shelf stacking considerations, though I think anti-contamination will be the main reason.

Cardboard can be recycled.

Actually, just checked, it's a flip lid on my well known brand toothpaste – even easier to tamper with than a screw on lid.

My cheap Tesco toothpaste, (see my earlier post) has a foil seal over the end, then a screw cap.

If someone wanted to taste /sniff it (yuk) they would have to remove it first.

My toothpaste comes with a foil seal under the flip up cap too. OH uses a different brand that has a screw on lid. Tomato paste is in a metal tube while toothpaste is in a plastic one.

Cardboard can be recycled, but it would be better if it wasn’t used in the first place.
I’ll let you know if I get a reply to that letter!

Lots of the cardboard around toothpaste is shiny with shiny silver patches, which means it is not recyclable.

Toothpaste tubes cannot be disposed of as far as I know. Therefore every tube that has ever existed still exists. What a thought.

Cabbie21, how would you package tomato paste to reduce waste? As far as I can see it's just paste in a tube.

I was taking toothpaste tubes to a local recycling set up, but they don’t take them anymore. Feels naughty putting them in the general waste now!

EEJit

Cabbie21, how would you package tomato paste to reduce waste? As far as I can see it's just paste in a tube.

Could it not go in a glass jar? Why does it need to be in a tube?

The glass jar can be reused or recycled.

In our area our general waste is incinerated to provide heat for industry, the metal melts and is recovered so our tomato purée tubes are not going to landfill. The plastic toothpaste tubes are a different matter. Nowhere recycles them within around 50 miles of me.
I think they’re in cardboard boxes to enable them to be more easily transported and stacked. Metal tubes don’t slide about as much as plastic and “the public” (whoever that is) prefer their toiletries to be better wrapped than their food items.

In answer to calendar girl- you can get tomato purée in glass jars, I usually do. However; they’re heavier to carry and subject to breaking. They are also harder for me to recycle because we don’t get our waste glass collected here so I have to carry it back to the supermarket bins.

I remember when the toothpaste came in a small, flat round tin.

Now that you mention it, No, I have no good answer.

Unless it is because toothpaste, unlike groceries, is also sold in chemists' shops where all tubes of ointment etc. are boxed. Presumably, as it was easier originally to stamp the boxes clearly than stamping the tubes, and after all medical supplies have to be clearly marked.

I mean you will undoubtedly be unpleasantly surprised if you confuse a tube of mustard for toothpaste, but it is unlikely to kill you. But confusing an ointment that is only to be used externally with toothpaste could be exceedingly dangerous.

Foodstuffs such as tomato paste, mustard, mayonnaise and many others can be sold in tubes, but these are supplied in crates by the wholesalers who leave it to the retailers to solve the problem of how you actually stack tubes of anything neatly on a shelf.

My toothpaste tube is recyclable.

I still maintain that having a tube in a box is an extra safety precaution. If the box has been opened or damaged the toothpaste should be discarded as you would with medicines. Pharmacies cannot re-use returned medicines.

It’s going uncooked into your mouth. Tomato paste is not usually eaten raw.

grannybuy

I remember when the toothpaste came in a small, flat round tin.

Like this, grannybuy?

With its fairytale castles on the lid, I always thought.
I was very young😆

I cut my tomatoe paste tube in half & add warm water & throw it in my chilli, spag Bol,then chuck in the recycle bin as it’s tin

CalenderGirl,

I agree, glass could be used, but when you consider the amount of paste in the tube a jar may not be economical