I wonder who thought up that slogan about rubbish, every day we are expected to be guilty about something, yesterday rubbish, today eating rubbish food, eg heavily industrialised food with more artificial ingredients than fresh. O well..
Western world has been discreetly sending their rubbish to Asian countries. Well they have had enough - good for them - and now are threatening to send it back to the countries it came from.
Western world has been discreetly sending their rubbish to Asian countries. Well they have had enough - good for them - and now are threatening to send it back to the countries it came from.
We talk of recycling plastic but it is almost impossible to recycle all of the plastic, so we should perhaps be hitting on the producers of plastic and telling them to stop. Okay impossible but solutions need to be found.
How come governments haven't done something about it? Stupid question, we all know the answer to that. We have 'recycling' schemes, today is our recycling day, newspapers and cardboard in one box, aluminum cans and plastic in the other. The garden waste, (very heavy with grass cuttings at the moment) is collected by another vehicle.
Garden waste gets recycled and I buy some each year (it comes in plastic bags though), the rest goes elsewhere. No matter how much I scan my shopping and try not to buy goods in plasticky things, you have to. Lucy's chicken, ice cream, fish, etc the list goes on. I suspect that biological wrapping stuff, such as potato starch would get impregnated by the liquid content of the stuff bought. Though I notice some of my magazines and even the Guardian uses potato starch as a covering.. Perhaps there is an answer here, grit one's teeth buy expensive butcher's meat wrapped in paper, and green grocery free of plastic, which I do already and ditch the ice cream, Lucy would be so disappointed if I did that!
Sweden though is managing to control their recycling by burning it as fuel...
Sweden though is managing to control their recycling by burning it as fuel...
Well that is a start, which I follow, our pretty little market town has several shops that cater for our needs. There is a small shop, bring your own bags for flour, etc and they have vegetables, fruit, local mayonnaise, jams and pickles. But then think of the log jam if everybody shopped there.
Another thought, Daisys, our local garden centre, why can't they use those brown cardboard pots for plants they are selling, instead of the plastic pots? Slight adjustments and we could be there... Have you hear about 'Who Gives a Crap' toilet paper, a delicate subject but worth thinking about, they don't use trees in the making of their wares but I am not sure what they do use, its not what you think..
Serious concentration called for here... We cannot live upon this Earth without producing some rubbish, our guilty secret, and here I include Paul, is that we have things delivered to the house and they come in a variety of wrappings including plastic. Maybe a note to them all, will not accept plastic would do the trick but somehow think they would refuse to send the goods out. Amazon stands out as a cardboard user, so some good comes out of behemoths even if they are trying to takeover the world.
Another thought, Daisys, our local garden centre, why can't they use those brown cardboard pots for plants they are selling, instead of the plastic pots? Slight adjustments and we could be there... Have you hear about 'Who Gives a Crap' toilet paper, a delicate subject but worth thinking about, they don't use trees in the making of their wares but I am not sure what they do use, its not what you think..
Serious concentration called for here... We cannot live upon this Earth without producing some rubbish, our guilty secret, and here I include Paul, is that we have things delivered to the house and they come in a variety of wrappings including plastic. Maybe a note to them all, will not accept plastic would do the trick but somehow think they would refuse to send the goods out. Amazon stands out as a cardboard user, so some good comes out of behemoths even if they are trying to takeover the world.
I am about to order some cotton buds made entirely from bamboo. After use they can be composted. The trouble with this increased environmental awareness is that we need to have the whole planet on board including China, India, Indonesia, Brazil, Russia and the USA. Massive countries with huge populations and also the chief offenders.
ReplyDeleteBamboo of course has a multitude of uses, you can even knit with it, clean your teeth, etc. Some Indonesian countries use banana leaves for wrapping up things from the market.
DeleteOur large greengrocers on our Friday market uses only brown paper bags but other than that it is plastic. As I stood at the check out this morning in our local Deli, I saw a notice which said they had given over three thousand pounds to a charity recently - all money collected from selling plastic bags for shopping.
ReplyDeleteCan one take from that, that people are just as happy to dish out 5 pence for a plastic bag, I am sure it shouldn't work out that way Pat.
Deletei have told the man at the fish counter to keep his plastic clam shell box and just wrap my fish in butcher paper, which he does. Our state passed a law no longer allowing styrofoam containers. It is a start.
ReplyDeleteSmall gestures will go a long way. Some of the packaging material is so light like styrofoam that it breaks into a million pieces.
ReplyDeleteA couple of our large supermarkets have stopped providing 'single use plastic bags' - now it's definitely bring your own of pay for larger more durable ones. Sort of a half step in the 'right direction'
ReplyDeleteI wrote a post quite recently about the collection scheme for soft plastics which replaced one primarily for collecting just those 'single use' bags. If more was available loose - less was packaged that would be another step. I buy loose most of the time, fruit & veg especially, we do have shops (like health food places) allowing customers to weigh and then use their own containers - they've been around for years but are now 'trendy'
It's certainly a worldwide problem that nobody really seems to have an answer to.
Cathy
Cathy@StillWaters
Still Cathy as your comment points out, steps are being taken, even though small.
ReplyDeleteI have made a few string bags which have come in useful, and checking through a non-plastic seller see that a certain amount of stuff, such as cling film, can be replaced by cotton tops. Remember the pretty milk jug covers with beads.