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Supermarkets, manufacturers and packaging companies are under more pressure than ever to create less waste. Report after report details the menace that discarded plastic poses to our waterways, coasts, sea life and even our health. Ministers have promised action. Philip Hammond, the chancellor, wants to tax any plastic packaging with less than 30% recycled material. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is planning a bottle deposit scheme, following Scotland's lead, and wants to create a uniform system of recycling across England, rather than leaving it to local authorities to choose. Supermarkets say they are taking the issue seriously. Iceland is aiming for all its own-brand products to be plastic-free by 2023, while others such as Tesco and Lidl say they are making much more of their packaging recyclable and reducing it where they can.
But the Recycling Association, which represents independent waste and recycling operators, believes they could be doing more. A lot more.
[...] The worst example in this aisle is a packet of Tesco's Ripe and Ready Conference Pears, with three types of plastic, none of which can be recycled. The four pears come on a plastic-foam tray, with a laminated plastic film around them, and a flat, stiff, clear plastic shield. "That's madness, absolutely madness," he says. "It's sort of understandable because it's probably protecting them from bruising, but cardboard would be so much better." A Tesco spokesman said all its packaged pears would come in a recyclable pulp tray from next week and that the rest of the packaging protected the fruit, causing less food waste.
Food waste is a significant environmental problem – the UK throws away about 7.3m tonnes of food a year, 85% coming from households, and the unused food represents a large carbon footprint. The solution, according to Curtis, is to use plastic that can easily be recycled. A different pack of pears comes in a bag with plastic that stretches. "We could recycle this," Curtis says. "The problem is that there is such a wide variety of standards. Most councils can't do this so it ends up in waste."
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 16 2019, @07:12PM (5 children)
No, plastic recycling is not the answer.
Using less plastic, ideally none, is.
Recycling is a joke for plastic.
Metals are another story.
Just use cardboard or paper so it can rot.
(Score: 2) by BsAtHome on Thursday May 16 2019, @08:06PM
Replacing with cardboard or paper is not an option. That would put an enormous strain on the resources. Prevention is the best strategy. You know, less(1) is more(1).
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bob_super on Thursday May 16 2019, @09:14PM
Once again, in order : reduce, reuse, recycle.
I do need to point out that the title made me really wonder what they were doing to former convicts in supermarkets ...
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday May 16 2019, @11:59PM (2 children)
Unless, of course, using more plastic generates value far in excess of its costs, environmental and otherwise. There's no point to only considering the cost of something. You also need to consider its benefits. We don't produce and use plastics because we hate sea life or landfills.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 17 2019, @02:02AM (1 child)
The producer and user of the disposable plastic does not pay the costs of its disposal.
Not their problem, not on their balance sheet. It's someone else's cost to bear.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday May 17 2019, @12:05PM
The user typically does not matter how the plastic is disposed of.