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  • #350671
    Neil Wyatt
    Moderator
      @neilwyatt

      That's the last straw…

      More seriously, this really feels like a moral panic 'plastic is killing the planet, let's ban toothpicks…'

      It would make more sense to stop supermarkets from profiteering by phasing out thin bags in favour of expensive 'bags for life' that are rarely used long enough to actually have less impact than a 'disposable' bag.

      Or better still, let's see more ingenuity in food (or all) packaging.

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      #35170
      Neil Wyatt
      Moderator
        @neilwyatt
        #350674
        Brian Wood
        Participant
          @brianwood45127

          What about just using simple paper bags that can join the newsprint and other such material we already recycle?

          That route is already operating.

          Brian

          #350675
          Gordon W
          Participant
            @gordonw

            I've never seen a plastic straw or cotton bud or bought a bottle of water. I have picked up many a bin full of black plastic bale wrap. Plastic super market bags got re-cycled as bin bags, now have to buy bin-bags.

            #350676
            Perko7
            Participant
              @perko7

              I still have the remains of a carton of paper bags bought when i was co-owner of a hobby shop in the early 80's. Almost everything would go into paper bags of one size or another, except large boxes (train sets, large model kits, jigsaw puzzles etc) which were wrapped in brown paper.

              Surprisingly I found the paper bags just as strong and durable as the flimsy plastic supermarket ones, as long as they didn't get wet.

              My wife recycles almost every bit of paper we get (except the glossy junk mail) through the compost bins. Plastic supermarket bags become bin liners and get thrown out with their contents when full (or too smelly surprise).

              #350677
              Douglas Johnston
              Participant
                @douglasjohnston98463

                I don't use straws but can't manage without cotton buds in the workshop since they have so many uses. I daresay they could find a more environmentally friendly stalk for the cotton buds, but will they function as well?

                Doug

                #350679
                JasonB
                Moderator
                  @jasonb

                  Is it the plastic that's really the problem or the way people discard it?

                  #350681
                  Russell Eberhardt
                  Participant
                    @russelleberhardt48058
                    Posted by JasonB on 19/04/2018 09:45:31:

                    Is it the plastic that's really the problem or the way people discard it?

                    Well said Jason. "People" must also include the councils who just tip it into landfill.

                    Russell

                    #350682
                    Neil Wyatt
                    Moderator
                      @neilwyatt
                      Posted by Russell Eberhardt on 19/04/2018 09:50:24:

                      Well said Jason. "People" must also include the councils who just tip it into landfill.

                      Russell

                      I must shoot that canard! The UK has really got to grips with landfill due to the high and continually increasing landfill tax.

                      Very little goes to landfill now. This graph ends in 2012, the second one extends similar data to 2016. The amount of landfill in 2018 is tiny in comparison to 2000.

                      #350684
                      vintagengineer
                      Participant
                        @vintagengineer

                        The press are missing the most critical factor. Most plastics are made from oil production waste by products. If we stop producing all plastics what happens to the oil production waste?

                        #350693
                        Samsaranda
                        Participant
                          @samsaranda

                          The oil companies will devise some other process that will enable them to charge us for the disposal of their waste, it will still exist but in another processed form. It exists and cannot be magicked away!

                          Dave W

                          #350698
                          Bazyle
                          Participant
                            @bazyle

                            Most of us on here remember perfectly good paper straws, though I'm not sure where the wax came from, and cotton buds should be made from natural cotton or wool and a wood stick. Waxed paper cups also used to be good enough for a cup of coffee but I'd be happy to see take-away banned so only china was used.

                            I'd like to see a trading standards raid on pound shops. It seems half the stuff in them is abysmal quality plastic crap which probably forms a significant proportion of waste when the item breaks on day 2.

                            The problem I see is the simultaneous reduction in newspaper availability for wrapping, cleaning, firelighting etc. I used to get freebies every week but now often find I have none in the house.

                            #350701
                            larry phelan 1
                            Participant
                              @larryphelan1

                              I seem to remember reading somewhere that of all the oil produced from the wells,very,very little ended up being used as oil,or fuel.Most of it ended up as plastic,which of course ended up being dumped [or sent to China,till they got fed up with it ]

                              When people went shopping years ago,they brought their own bags,so did not have to remove piles of wrappings,which they had no use for and did not need,in the first place.Why does your piece of cheese need to be wrapped up in two or three layers of plastic?,which you cannot open,anyway. Sometimes it,s easier just to eat the lot and let Nature take its course. Cheese,like many other foods should never be plastic wrapped.

                              Next time you come back from shopping,put the items you want to one side and the junk to the other and see which is the bigger pile. You might be surprised ! Remember also,you,re paying for it !

                              #350704
                              Trevorh
                              Participant
                                @trevorh

                                I am an engineer in the flexible packaging industry and I can tell you that Bio degradable plastic has been around since the late 1970's BUT the food industry refused to pay for it as the additives to make it bio degradable affected their profit margin, as does the types of printing inks used, some required lamination to keep them off the food stuff's

                                Its the food industry and packaging companies in general that are at fault as the more they can wrap the more they can charge.

                                and remember that to recycle paper has a massive carbon foot print almost as bad as Plastic recycling power wise

                                There is no magic answer but what is wrong is passing the "Buck" down to the consumer to deal with it

                                #350705
                                Michael Gilligan
                                Participant
                                  @michaelgilligan61133

                                  I must say that I was astonished by the number of plastic straws …

                                  According to BBC News:

                                  Announcing a consultation on a possible ban ministers said 8.5bn plastic straws were thrown away in the UK every year.

                                  8.5 billion is an awful lot of plastic straws !!

                                  MichaelG.

                                  .

                                  P.S. the blue plastic tubes from modern cotton buds are very useful; so I tend to reclaim them.

                                  #350713
                                  old Al
                                  Participant
                                    @oldal

                                    Just remember,

                                    If you throw something in the sea, it could end up anywhere in the world that has sea as its neigbour. can you imagine if we threw all our plastic rubbish in the sea and China, India, wherever else taxing their population so that they can be seen as 'green'.

                                    And as for the suger tax, im drinking beer now, i must be up 20p by now

                                    #350714
                                    steamdave
                                    Participant
                                      @steamdave

                                      Posted by Trevorh on 19/04/2018 12:22:31:

                                      and remember that to recycle paper has a massive carbon foot print almost as bad as Plastic recycling power wise

                                      Years ago, all our old newspapers were given to the Cats & Dogs Home because they could sell it, but then one day they stopped accepting it. Could it have been because of the above statement, I wonder?

                                      Dave
                                      The Emerald Isle

                                      #350715
                                      Vic
                                      Participant
                                        @vic
                                        Posted by Douglas Johnston on 19/04/2018 09:33:34:

                                        I don't use straws but can't manage without cotton buds in the workshop since they have so many uses. I daresay they could find a more environmentally friendly stalk for the cotton buds, but will they function as well?

                                        Doug

                                        Doug, I’m not sure where they came from but I used to use long, single ended cotton buds for cleaning electrical stuff at work They were about double the length of a normal cotton bud and the shafts were made of wood.

                                        Found them, here you go:

                                        **LINK**

                                        #350717
                                        Stuart Bridger
                                        Participant
                                          @stuartbridger82290

                                          Our local council used to recycle "flyaway" plastics, e.g. Plastic bags, food wrapping etc. Last year the contract changed presumably to provide "better value", but the new contractor won't take this type of plastic so goes it goes in the general waste. One the same subject, the number of food items from the supermarket that are double wrapped is annoying. Cheese being the worst offender. I know one answer is not to use supermarkets, but that is not always practical for those with busy lives.

                                          #350722
                                          Mick B1
                                          Participant
                                            @mickb1

                                            I think there's a lot of unfair criticism of plastic wrapping. It's the plastic wrapping that allows distribution of highly perishable foods like cooked meats, cheeses and fish products with the prices, volumes and keep-dates we're used to.

                                            Go back to paper packaging of this stuff and food-poisoning cases will skyrocket along with prices, and availability will plummet.

                                            It's true that some products are ludicrously overpackaged and the plastic straw is silly. But probably the main culprits as far as the environment is concerned are the web meshes that some citrus fruit is sold in, the little barbs used for clothing labels, discarded fishing line, and microbeads.

                                            There's no way back to simplistic memories of days gone by without also bringing back the concomitant drawbacks, risks and abuses from those times.

                                            #350733
                                            Mike Poole
                                            Participant
                                              @mikepoole82104

                                              I thought plastic straws were a vast improvement on paper ones especially as small children seem to make them soggy and they then collapse. Ice-cream tubs with the wax coating worked but over zealous scraping resulted in wax flakes in your ice-cream. I am sure incinerators with energy recovery systems must be a useful way to recycle all this plastic coated paper and unwanted plastic, must need some clever systems to control the toxic fumes from burning plastic though.

                                              Mike

                                              #350735
                                              Grindstone Cowboy
                                              Participant
                                                @grindstonecowboy

                                                Regarding cotton-buds, they are now using paper stalks rather than the blue plastic tubes – was quite surprised when I bought the last box (major manufacturer, starts with J & J ). The plastic dome on the box also seems to have changed to a more readily recyclable type of plastic.

                                                #350737
                                                larry phelan 1
                                                Participant
                                                  @larryphelan1

                                                  As the Bard said "What,s in a name,plastic by any other name is still junk" [Or words to that effect ! ]

                                                  The amount of this stuff I have to get rid of after a shopping spell seems to get bigger each time. You cannot buy anything now that,s not "Double wrapped" sometimes more. It,s a case of "You pays to get it—you pays to get rid of it "

                                                  #350742
                                                  Douglas Johnston
                                                  Participant
                                                    @douglasjohnston98463
                                                    Posted by Vic on 19/04/2018 13:46:42:

                                                    Posted by Douglas Johnston on 19/04/2018 09:33:34:

                                                    I don't use straws but can't manage without cotton buds in the workshop since they have so many uses. I daresay they could find a more environmentally friendly stalk for the cotton buds, but will they function as well?

                                                    Doug

                                                    Doug, I’m not sure where they came from but I used to use long, single ended cotton buds for cleaning electrical stuff at work They were about double the length of a normal cotton bud and the shafts were made of wood.

                                                    Found them, here you go:

                                                    **LINK**

                                                    That's interesting Vic, the longer length could be useful at times and the wooden stalks might be a bit more rigid than the plastic ones. I must look around when I need to renew my box of cotton buds and see if I can find any non plastic ones, perhaps a bit cheaper than the ones you found.

                                                    Doug

                                                    #350747
                                                    Gray62
                                                    Participant
                                                      @gray62

                                                      I use these buds from AF cleaning products, Cheaper than the ones from RS and very good quality

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