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Our week living without plastic

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Our week living without plastic

Postby mark111757 » Tue Jan 16, 2018 1:38 am

From the extensive article in the times #2, Jan 15, 2018.

The prices at the end of the gif made me gasp....


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Re: Our week living without plastic

Postby Stokey Sue » Wed Jan 17, 2018 11:41 am

It's interesting but there's an element of moving way upmarket to get the plastic-free list
The Sainsbury's plastic free shop will be different brands and grades

If they'd gone to an ordinary street market and not the snobby Borough Market they could have bought the veg plastic free at the same sort of prices as the Sainsbury with plastic shop, possibly even less. A street trader would offer you a plastic bag, but would be happy to hang on to it and give you the goods without

Some of that is obvious padding, 5 bananas £3.45? You can get 5 bananas plastic free for less than £1 almost anywhere (including Sainsbury), so why choose to buy them in a station shop which presumably is really selling them to passing travellers singly as snacks?

Another good example is the Lush shampoo £6.50. I loathe Lush and wouldn't buy it, but it's a premium brand. A good quality Sainsbury own brand will be in plastic but about £2 so that's bumping up the total gap quite a lot

There's a distinct element of codology in that list I think

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Re: Our week living without plastic

Postby Stokey Sue » Wed Jan 17, 2018 11:52 am

PS £6 for a pound of mince? :lol: :lol:

You would really have to look for somewher to spend that much, with or without plastic

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Re: Our week living without plastic

Postby Sakkarin » Wed Jan 17, 2018 12:26 pm

That "Borough Market" thing made me laugh too. A bit "Let them eat cakeish". The list seems a bit of a nonsense list.

I'm not dissing the underlying question, as the amount of unnecessary plastic that comes home in my shopping I find obscene. Plastics in the home have spiralled out of control too. When I moved here, many things were still made out of wood, metal, glass and fabrics. Much of that has been replaced with plastic products, and more than that, with plastic products that have ludicrously short lives to encourage obsolescence and replacement, where in earlier years they could have been mended and continue in service.

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Re: Our week living without plastic

Postby Alexandria » Wed Jan 17, 2018 1:51 pm

Those prices are simply outrageous !


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Re: Our week living without plastic

Postby Pampy » Wed Jan 17, 2018 3:48 pm

6 pints of semi-skimmed milk - £4.86???

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Re: Our week living without plastic

Postby karadekoolaid » Wed Jan 17, 2018 5:46 pm

I wonder why on earth you'd want to buy "semi-skimmed" milk when the real thing will do :gonzo :gonzo

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Re: Our week living without plastic

Postby Sakkarin » Wed Jan 17, 2018 10:33 pm

I always think of it as semi-skilled milk.

Pampy, I think that's because it isn't in plastic bottles, so presumably glass. Technically my milk in a glass bottle from the milkman costs me 75p a pint, so six pints would be £4.50. I've been tempted to go for supermarket, but the thought of all that wasted plastic stops me. If my milkman started using plastic bottles (which there was talk of happening, I believe some milkmen do...) I'd stop getting it delivered.

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Re: Our week living without plastic

Postby Pampy » Thu Jan 18, 2018 1:05 am

I didn't know that's how much it cost in glass bottles. I don't have milk delivered but I know that the milkman who delivers to my neighbours uses plastic bottles. I seem to remember that a few years ago, Sainsbury's (I think it was them) started to sell milk in something like a pouch but I've not seen or heard of it in quite a while.

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Re: Our week living without plastic

Postby karadekoolaid » Thu Jan 18, 2018 6:28 am

I seem to remember that a few years ago, Sainsbury's (I think it was them) started to sell milk in something like a pouch


Yep - they nicked the idea from a kangaroo
:gonzo :gonzo :gonzo
( yep, I was just leaving...... :shock: )

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Re: Our week living without plastic

Postby Sakkarin » Thu Jan 18, 2018 12:06 pm

Image

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Re: Our week living without plastic

Postby Stokey Sue » Thu Jan 18, 2018 1:25 pm

It is or used to be common in Europe to buy, mainly UHT, milk in plastic pouches which you then decant into a jug or you can get a special (plastic!) holder in which to clip them to pour out the milk

We had them in South Africa too, I can never get the holder things to work

Anyway, it was those Sainsbury tried but UK consumers didn't take to them

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Re: Our week living without plastic

Postby Sakkarin » Thu Jan 18, 2018 2:40 pm

Briefly mushrooms were sold in fibre cartons in Tesco. I kept this one, because the mushrooms keep better in the fridge in them (the plastic seems to make them "sweat"). It was an encouraging sign, but then they reverted to plastic, I wonder what the story was behind that. I would use the loose mushrooms, but often they are in considerably worse condition than the prepacked ones. I suspect that's partly deliberate to encourage the easier to manage prepacks, but it's also a sign that loose may be more popular than Tesco would like to admit. I don't think I've EVER seen the prepacks run out and the loose still available.

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Re: Our week living without plastic

Postby Stokey Sue » Thu Jan 18, 2018 4:31 pm

Supermarkets used to give you special paper mushroom bags for loose mushrooms, precisely because mushrooms do sweat in plastic

I thought of them the other day


Morrisons no longer sell loose potatoes apart form some speciality ones, which is annoying as apart from the plastic I don't want 2.5 kg at once. I'd buy them from the greengrocer, but my local shops aren't very good for potatoes

I notice that plastic egg boxes have mainly gone out of fashion, most eggs come in fibre these days, I suspect less breakages.

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Re: Our week living without plastic

Postby Linnet » Thu Jan 18, 2018 4:39 pm

My local Sainsburys still does the paper bags for mushrooms, but the only ones you can buy loose are the white 'cup' type, anything else is pre-packed in plastic boxes and with plastic film over.

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Re: Our week living without plastic

Postby scullion » Thu Jan 18, 2018 6:14 pm

i've just had an email pertaining to this subject:

Hi there,

I’ve just signed a petition calling on UK supermarkets to go plastic-free, and it would mean a lot to me if you’d add your name too!

From turtles entangled in six pack rings to whales with stomachs full of plastic bags, the effects of plastic pollution can be devastating.

UK supermarket Iceland has just announced its own-brand packaging is going plastic-free.

By ditching plastic packaging, supermarkets have the power to lead the way in dramatically reducing the amount of single-use plastic produced.

Please join me in calling on UK supermarkets to ditch throwaway plastic packaging.

Sign the petition >> https://secure.greenpeace.org.uk/plasti ... rmarket-ef

Thank you!


-just in case anyone's interested.

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Re: Our week living without plastic

Postby Stokey Sue » Thu Jan 18, 2018 6:22 pm

Useful (national) round up of zero packaging waste shops

https://thezerowaster.com/zero-waste-near-you/

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Re: Our week living without plastic

Postby Sakkarin » Thu Jan 18, 2018 7:57 pm

There's only one place listed in Hertfordshire on that listing, the website says, "In St Albans, Eat Wholefoods open their warehouse on Tuesday, Thursdays and Fridays for customers to refill their own containers."

Had a look at their website, and it looks more like a big garage than "warehouse"! And there are still loads of plastic containers and plastic bags as far as I can see.

https://www.eatwholefoods.co.uk/st-albans-shop/

Google Streetview 360 degree lookaround inside the store:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Eat ... 7303?hl=en

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Re: Our week living without plastic

Postby Stokey Sue » Sat Jan 20, 2018 4:48 pm

I wonder if we will revert to cellophane? I remember years ago sending a young colleague to a local whole foods cooperative to get an ingredient he needed, and he was amazed how beautiful all the groceries looked stacked up in plain cellophane, and how nice the ladies behind the counter were (he was used to Tesco)

Cellophane (glassine) is cellulose, so compostable

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Re: Our week living without plastic

Postby Sakkarin » Sat Jan 20, 2018 6:06 pm

Not a lot I can do about this:

Bought my favourite frozen Punjabi Samosas yesterday, and they have changed from a cardboard box to a plastic bag.

I wonder if it takes more energy to keep a cardboard box frozen than a plastic bag?

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