Monday, 30 December 2024

Too Much Food Packaging Or Maybe Not?


 I was having an hissy fit rant yesterday about too much food packaging.  Plastic in particular.

There's the cardboard sleeve wrapping that tells the customer that the contents is a beef roasting joint.

Then you take the beef out of the wrapping tray and you notice the beef is inside a plastic bag.

You question the logic of this and some one in the kitchen reads the cardboard sleeve and tells you that you cook the roasting joint in the plastic bag!

"What?"

People will be buying water in plastic bottles next.  Yes I know they do.  Could you imagine saying to your grandparents that you buy bottled water?  " What's wrong with tap water?"  They would say.

At least I use my empties for plant cuttings cloches and we get their deposit back if we put them in the "Return" machines in the Irish supermarkets.

My next post will be a look back at 2024.  See you soon.

22 comments:

  1. I wish we could get money back. We recycle but do they even use it or does it all go in some landfill far away?

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  2. The "Return" deposit machines seem to have been very successful especially in Ireland Linda. I have read about biodegradable plastic but I don't think I have ever seen any. I often wonder how much plastic we ingest or eat with so much of our food covered in plastic. It seems like an endless tide that can not be turned back. I try to repurpose plastic in the veg plot and people are always giving me their plastic plant pots to propagate more plants. I wish they gave me mushroom compost or any kind of compost.

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  3. I wouldn't like to cook anything in plastic.

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  4. No GZ. I have my concerns. There's a lot to be said for slow cooking. The longer it takes the bette the tenderness and the taste. I even seen organic vegetables wrapped in plastic in the supermarkets. Why can't they just tie string around them?

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    Replies
    1. It is to differentiate from the non organic ones...if they just had stickers, stickers can.and are..swapped

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    2. Why not put them in a paper bag with 'organic' printed on it?

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  5. I roll my eyes when purchasing eco goods, the items come in a plastic bag, there is no hope. Bottle water companies only make plastic bottles for profit, I rarely get bottled water. Marlene, Poppypatchwork

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  6. There is no hope. I like that phrase Marlene. I often carry plastic bottles of water or Lucozade when I am walking or gardening or mucking out. There must be a plastic mountain somewhere?

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  7. They now accept nearly all except all plastic packaging in our recycling bins, but I have a suspicion it goes into the incinerator to generate energy. It is as polluting as burning oil, which in effect is what it is.

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    1. You echo my thoughts with your last sentence Tasker. Oil seems to be the problem causer for wars and pollution.

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  8. You do right to rant about plastic packaging Dave. It is a blight upon our planet. It breaks my heart to think that profit-hungry companies have imposed this plastic scourge upon us without even asking. One of my worst worries is all the micro-plastics that are in our water, in our wild creatures and in our children. When I was born (1953) plastic packaging wasn't really a thing. Why can't these bloody "COP" conferences do something about it? We should all be ranting.

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    Replies
    1. Totally agree YP. What was wrong with a string back and your food wrapped in brown paper?

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  9. I cannot get over people who buy packaged peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. The world is crazy.

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  10. My favorite hobby horse (and it doesn't even produce something I can use on the garden). I could rant for England about food packaging. Go on - rant away.

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  11. I think I touched a nerve Tigger's Mum. I agree with everything you say.

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  12. I find trying to open such packaging can often feel like a manual dexterity test. Don't get me started on plastic bottles.

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  13. You should see me in the morning trying to open some biscuits Jules. It would be a good game on the Crystal Maze. Have you read: Blue Print For A Green Planet by John Seymour? It was published in 1987. The diagrams and what he writes are so radical and descriptive and he shows how long it takes for plastic and glass to decompose. For example. Clear glass is made of natural materials and does no harm to the environment if placed in landfill. You will find the book on Abe Books UK. It's not expensive.

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  14. The claims made for packaging are all to do with 'health and safety' and 'hygiene.' It makes me so cross to have to hack my way through it all to reach the contents.

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  15. I agree. Also forklift friendly to stack the products. My self sufficiency/smallholding guru/author once wrote: "The dustman need never visit the smallholding". No plastic, everything organic and any paper packaging could keep us warm on the fire or composted. Thanks!

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