Drowning in plastic

pamelaJ1 I stand corrected. This is no longer the case however I stand by my protest.

I was so surprised yesterday that I didn't say anything - unusual for me!!! I bought some mince which was in a plastic container, covered by plastic and the woman at the till put it into a small plastic bag! I'd never had that happen before.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-45732371

Another big problem is so-called 'disposable' nappies.
I think people are frightened to make too much of this because of the probable reaction from manufacturers and mothers of babies.

I think you are wrong about stores being paid to dispose and recycle waste.
I’m only a very small business and our council charges for removing both types of rubbish. As I don’t work much now I pay for trade bags rather than bins.

Yes it does but stores are paid to recycle waste and I'm not. ?️. Also I consider my little pile of discarded plastic a small protest from me to the shop about unnecessary packaging.

It still has to be disposed of though.

Why to go Nanny27.
??????

I go to the packing bench in Aldi and remove all unnecessary packaging. I leave it for the store to dispose of.

The only problem with using bars of soap is keeping them in a fit state to use throughout their lifetime. I remember my mother despairing if one of us left it in the wash basin or forgot to put it back in the dish. Dad used to stick all the 'almost used' bits together but it was a bit pointless because there was no lather left.

I agree about keeping them in drawers. I've always done that with nice bars that I have been given in the past and never used.

I am going to change to real soap (and indulge myself with nice scents from l’Occitane ) when the current shower gel and hand wash give out. I understand that keeping unused bars in a chest of drawers not only makes things smell nice, but discourages moths.
As mentioned on another thread, changing to leaf tea instead of teabags is another small change, but I think a good and useful one.
Tinfoil or butter papers instead of cling film in the fridge, an upturned saucer/plate over a dish in the microwave?
Butter in packets instead of tubs of spreadable butter, a reusable water bottle and coffee cup.
Just a few things, but surely al helpful.

Liquid soap is very convenient so now I grate up soap and pop it into bottles, fill with water and shake before using.
Seems to work and saves money.
Washer woman maybe one day we will find the nerve to do some unpacking at the tills.

I had thought about taking plants I buy out of their containers wrapping them in newspaper and giving the pots back to the person at the till. Might make a mess though.

Does anyone remember buying Talc in tins rather than in plastic container, also having your sandwiches for a day trip or packed lunch wrapped in the wrapper the bread came in or grease proof paper then a paper bag. I noticed that my local Morrison supermarket has started using paper bags to put loose bananas in rather than plastic bags. Why can't all shops use paper bags instead of plastic ones.I am sure that the majority of customers would applaud any supermarket doing this to show support for the enviroment.

I now put as much fruit and veg loose in my basket and avoid the pre packaged stuff unless absolutely essential.The cashiers don't seem to mind and it all goes into my reusable bags.I would really love to have the nerve to rip off some of the excessive packaging -M+S in particular - and ask them to dispose of it.The local farm shop uses paper bags so that's another place I shop.Ive stopped using bin bags.The bin inners are plastic after all so stuff goes straight in the wheelie bin,and the smaller bins get a swill out with boiling water and a bit of disinfectant.We have stopped buying handsoaps in dispensers and gone back to some lovely hand soaps.And the shampoo bars are lovely and my hair is fine with them.We have always had milk delivered in bottles.And I'm even replacing all the plants in containers with lovely perennials rather than buy endless bedding plants each year.It all seems a bit futile after seeing the scale of plastic pollution,but every little helps I guess.And we can only hope if we humans were inventive enough to create plastic in the first place ,some of the more ingenious ,brainy and dedicated people out there can turn the tide and come up with solutions for sake of future generations.

No sure about glass bottles but Lush do shampoo bars. Not tried them though.

I am trying to find shampoo and shower gel in glass bottles. Any suggestions?

We have a canal at the back of our house. Some of the gardens slope up to the canal, so the canal is part of their garden, if that makes sense. Someone we know saw their neighbour walk to the top of he garden and tip all her household rubbish into the canal. Why? We have wheelie bins for everything. What chance have we got if that's going on?

I changed. I now have milk delivered in glass bottles by the local milkman. No plastic and provides jobs.

It is cheaper for food manufacturers to package stuff in single use plastic much of it unrecyclable than to think about alternatives. When you think of all those plastic milk and drinks bottles which are used once and thrown away its truly scary. So we as consumers have to be prepared to demand a change - paper bags not plastic for fruit n veg, all food products which need to be in plastic packaging should be recyclable and there should be deposits on bottles etc which should be returned to the shop which sells them.

Thanks for the link Jane.
It’s one of my soapbox topics that so few have heard of.
When I say that I don’t buy fleeces and how bad they are for the environment people think I’m just loopy.

PamelaJ1 thank you for reminding me about fleece products. I did hear about this some time ago but had forgotten. It is very disturbing when you see the racks and racks of them at very cheap prices in Primark.

www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jun/20/microfibers-plastic-pollution-oceans-patagonia-synthetic-clothes-microbeads

Petra I’m sure the BBC would help if you contact them.

Let us know how you get on Petra.

It's all doable. Look at the young chap who was developing the edible wrapping out of algae. Pure genius, I thought.
I'm seriously going to try and track down this young man and see if I can invest in what he's doing.