How can we get rid of plastic waste?

I bought ( and use ) one of Waitrose's reuseable cups for their free coffee about two years ago, and in all that time I have only ever seen one other person use one at the coffee machine. When I ask at the checkout for my free coffee and say that I don't need a cup, it's almost always greeted with puzzlement as if they've never heard of such a thing. Why on earth don't Waitrose promote the idea of taking a reuseable cup when going shopping? Think of the Brownie points they could earn for themselves!

So pleased to read this thread (apart from the politicos) because I’m really anxious about the amount of plastic we get handed every day, which we just can’t recycle. Great idea just to put veg loose in the trolley once weighed, or to use the mushroom bags in UK supermarkets, I always carry a string bag too, but so much fruit comes plastic wrapped - what happened to the old punnets we used to get? Btw, the area of France I go to only has recycling for paper and glass, nothing else, so it is very varied even there, and the butter I bought in France was plastic wrapped instead of grease proof paper! In our UK village, when we do a ‘litter pick’ it is almost all plastic.

My sister in law always takes a black bag with her when she goes for a walk in Suffolk she puts it her recycling bin when she gets home. Must say when I have visited suffolk always looks neat and tidy.
I have been out with my h in the car and seen the public throwing rubbish out the window of the car.
I think it’s the usual thing now with ignorant people who don’t care at all, only got to look at the news this morning and see the piece about children with rotting teeth so young thats dreadful. Rubbish food and drink.

One thing I read about that may get the message across is, anything’s you buy In the supermarket or anywhere else for that matter. Take the plastic off the product at the cash desk and hand it back to the cashier. Sainsbury spring to mind who this week were criticised for wrapping a coconut. Every little helps as the saying goes and if everyone did it our voice would be heard.

The biggest problem as far as I can see is that too many people drop their litter in the street whenever they feel like it. We live down a pretty lane and we pick up the litter people drop out of their car windows daily. What happened to the idea of 'Litterbugs'

I support a charity in South Africa called JBay Recycling and it is aimed at children who are very involved in recycling. They get a lot of education about it and they teach their parents. (https://jbayrecyclingproject.org/)
For example, they are taught in school to say 'I'd like a lemonade please no straw' when they buy a drink. Little things like straws get forgotten but there are billions of them sold every year.

We use produce bags for fruit and veg. Some I purchased and some I made from an old net curtain with shoe laces to fasten. There are lots of zero waste bloggers and plastic free on the internet including on pinterest and while they are sometimes extreme in some of their ideas, they often have blogs on how to get started. I think every week we use less plastic adds up to lots over a year and every time I use my bags in a supermarket or on our local market someone asks me and I get to spread the word

Standing on the bottles usually works (but not always, and if there is any liquid left in them it squirts across the room)

Great! I squash them against the kitchen units - btw same with all cartons (milk, orange juice, etc).

Again, once you get used to it, it just becomes automatic.

I already flatten cardboard boxes and as much of the plastic as I can. Some plastic bottles are too stiff to squash though.

One way to also cut down on tons of transport and diesel- is to flatten all cardboard boxes for recycling- be they biscuits, cereal, rice, etc, etc- and for all plastic bottles to be squeezed and flattened (air out) and top put back on. A lorry can then transport at least 4 times more per journey.

Since we now pay by weight here in my area- many parents have swapped to those modern washable shapped nappies, with inserts - as disposables are full of chemicals and gel which weighs a ton when wet. With modern washing machines that take a lot less water and energy as the old ones- it is much cheaper too and parents feel they are really doing something positive for the environment.

Even in the USA, if you go to McDonalds, stuff is sold in cardboard, not polystyrene. The country just has to say , NO- NO MORE' and businesses will just adapt.

Jalima- are the plastic bags for fruit and veg biodegradable?

Here people take thin cloth bags for fruit and veg or paper bags- but in the French supermarket all bags are biodegradable. You could buy rolls of the biodegradable ones and take a few with you each time. Like taking your own bags for the shopping- it is amazing how quickl you get into a routine and it becomes automatic.

The situation in the UK is critical, as most of the 'so-called recycled plastics' were shipped to China- which made no sense at all. So now China says (quite rightly) NO- it will all end up in landfill.

So easy for eggs to be in recycled carboard boxes, same for lots of stuff.

I do have some Pyrex dishes with plastic lids in which I freeze casseroles, etc, but it's the home-grown fruit? Or home-made stock?

Bags leak and I freeze a lot of home made ready meals.

They could be scrubbed and re-used to freeze home-made food until they split, then hopefully they can be recycled.

What's best to freeze home produce? Bags or the plastic containers which need to be disposed of when they split?

Jalima1108, I read/ heard somewhere that if you put a jug if water in the fridge, overnight I think, it removes all the chlorinated smell and other stuff that water filter jugs are supposed to remove. Don't know if it works though.
As to little plastic bags for carrots, brussels etc, could you use the paper bags used for mushrooms? After you have weighed them, in self service, you get a price sticker/ ticket, dispensed from the scales that can be stuck on the bag

I m doing my bit too really worried about it especially when I read that every bit of plastic ever made is still on this earth if ours and when you look around the house nearly everything is made of plastic
Thinking about takeaways my Chinese always used to come in a foil tin with a cardboard lid now it comes in a plastic container with plastic lid maybe we can all target places like that and get them to go back to their tinfoil tubs again

I have had purchased clothes which have been put into those corn starch bags - not in this country though.
Yet.

In France our local supermarket only has those biodegradable plastic bags made from corn starch on the vegetable section. When you get home the bags can either be composted or, in my case brought back to England and used to put food waste into that is going into the food waste recycling system and on to an anaerobic digester to produce biogas.

Following jura's post. In France we can only dispose of waste in transparent plastic bags supplied by the council. This is so the bin man can see whether we are disposing of recyclable materials, in which case the bag will be left behind until it is recyclable free.

I use produce bags for fruit & veg. The bags last for years and you can even wash the produce while still in the bag, then store it. For something like cabbage or squash, I don't bother use any kind of bag.

There are loads on the market but this is an example.
www.amazon.co.uk/MIU-COLOR%C2%AE-Reusable-Produce-Bags/dp/B00Z8ZTX50/ref=pd_bxgy_201_3?psc=1&_encoding=UTF8&tag=gransnetforum-21&refRID=WBVQWX4RN1HKMS2PS1SX

I think that's a really good idea Jalima - I will do that as well tomorrow. If I don't have a choice about buying something wrapped in plastic, I'll make a small nuisance of myself and ask why. If people keep on asking for a no plastic option, the retailers will start catering to that market.

Bought myself an insulated coffee mug today at Waitrose and used it for my “free” cuppa.
The longest journey starts with a single step!

Well, I started as I mean to try to go on, bought loose fruit and veg and just put it in the trolley like that, apart from the sprouts in the paper bag. The checkout person did not bat an eyelid, just weighed it, then we put it carefully into one bag. I did buy pre-packed bananas though, as the others looked very ropey.

It is very hard for individuals to cut down on plastic in their lives. If I go to the supermarket, just about everything is in plastic. If I choose loose veg, a plastic bag is supplied to put it in.

There has to be a fundamental change before any progress will be made.