Oh I want change and soon as well. But I still think people want to see what they are buying. Stores want to avoid theft and damage. Somewhere in all this mix both parties need to reach a common ground and what that is I personally don’t know. Fully recyclable resilient materials (and transparent if needed) are certainly a good way to go but it needs people power to drive the change.
I would guess that nearly every time people buy something in a package that obscures the product they want to see what it looks like so if the sample of the product is on display that often meets their need, but if it isn’t then many open the packaging or they take a risk and buy unseen (I would imagine not often), or they get a staff member, if one can be found, to open a product so they can see it. Would you buy beans in a sealed brown paper bag or would you prefer to see the product? I would happily put loose beans in a brown/white/any colour paper bag if they were available but I would certainly be very reticent to buy a sealed opaque bag of beans.
When we purchase an item we use our eyes, our touch, our smell, and our hearing, all to varying degrees depending on the item. If we don’t have the ability to make use of these senses when inspecting items, and more particularly our sight, we become hesitant because those senses are what we rely on to make judgements on whether an item suits our need or is good. So I don’t know if it is mostly only young marketers that are driving this but rather it may be the human need to inspect.
I also remember the brown paper bags dumping all your cold shopping on the ground when in high humidity in central QLD. I believe the American paper bags are waxed and don’t degrade very quick. A lot of the hard to open packaging is also to foil shoplifting but surely something better could be thought of now. In regards to plastic bags I bought a rubbish bin designed to hold these bags and we use them for wet/moist rubbish etc, saves having to buy rubbish bags but this is after everything that can be recycled is.
Good points grahroll. Maybe I am older than you, but I can vividly remember pre-plastic days when we DID buy beans from a large container and filled a paper bag. In fact Coles have re-introduced a similar idea with nuts and snack foods - but, annoyingly, they supply plastic bags with this service…
For the sake of the planet maybe we should go back to older, simpler, shopping methods!
I totally agree with you. They are dangerous. I cut myself badly on one of these packages once and I am now so scared of doing it again. You’re right they should be banned
Oh I remember the paper bag days, and the green grocer, the baker and the milkman coming to the house to deliver their products. In fact I used to help my Uncle as a milkman.
I don’t agree with the use of un-recycleable plastic bags but we try at least to return those we do receive to the Coles Bins and we use as much as possible our own bags when we shop.
People power would be the most effective… but hard to achieve because it requires co-ordinators. Regulations based on 1. Pollution and 2. Consumer safety might be faster. This could be pushed by Choice.
There was no problem with visibility of goods when stores consist of counters with staff: you’d head for the right counter and ask for what you wanted, the salesperson would get it (from behind or under the counter) and show it to you, You’d make decision to buy (or not), decide on quantity you wanted, salesperson would bag up (paper bag) and process the sale. Not as much risk of shop stealing as the self-service shop, and employed people (and the jobs involved interacting with fellow human beings - which many find more satisfying than just shelf stacking and operating check outs).
With the dire warnings about jobs disappearing due to automation (and robots) it would be good if the retail service industry re-introduced service at the same time as re-introducing jobs (and reduced the overhead added to prices to cover shop stealing).
Governments, (especially those with big populations, like China) need to understand and prepare for the ramifications of increased automation. Increased leisure time is fine, but increased unemployment is not… and the ultimate result of that is crime and social rebellion.
If Coles and Woolworths are following this website (and if not, they damned well should), they should start to think ahead. Self checkouts are replacing more staff - so maybe they need to put some of these back onto the shop floor.
I do remember paper bags in the 60’s, but I also remember piles of cardboard boxes near the door to put your shopping in. I always carried a strong box in the car.
Re plastic packaging, I only recently visited an Aldi store for the first time. They proudly told me they don’t issue plastic bags, which I thought was great. But when I went to buy mushrooms, I could only buy 350gms in a plastic box. instead of the 200gms in a paper bag I wanted. Most of the fresh produce was already packed in plastic. It makes a mockery of their ‘no plastic bags’ propaganda.
I also saw hardly any staff, so it’s easy to work out how they reduce prices. I don’t think I support this at a time of unemployment. I’ll continue to shop at my regular supermarket.
My local IGA, which is not a large store, stocks all the fresh produce loose so you can serve yourself. True, you have to take them to the checkout in a small plastic bag most of the time, but I use these over and over. Can’t really carry around hard plastic boxes.
I suppose I could pack all my veggies etc in mushroom bags - hadn’t thought of that! But as the plastic bags last for months, and take no space in my shopping bag, I continue to do that.
And there are always plenty of staff around at an IGA store to assist.
I think I will just start to ask the attendant at the checkout to open the package for me before i leave, but after I have paid. If enough people did this, retailers would get the message. Or has anyone tried this and had a bad experience.
I once did it at the checkout in Coles, a bit over 20 years ago, it was a non-food item I needed and was appalled at how much packaging there was, so I removed it all and explained to the checkout person that I did not want all this unnecessary packaging, just the product, and could she dispose of the plastic for me. I think she was somewhat bemused, but I doubt she reported it to management.
There is no garbage collection service out here, so try to minimise packaging where we can and take our mostly recyclable waste to the nearest tip, about 25km away once or twice per year in the trailer. Since it is usually about 3/4 recyclable, it doesn’t cost us anything to deposit the non-recyclables.
It is entirely within your control whether you cut yourself or not. Get a big strong pair of scissors; wear gloves if necessary. You look both ways before crossing the road, don’t you?
My concern is not if the package is difficult to get into (as such difficulties can often be overcome with some effort or thought), but the waste caused by the overpackaging of products.
If packaging is thicker than it should be, it means that it results in additional waste being created (either throgh packaging or additional resources needed in the supply chain). If packaging has two or more layers (such as many boxed food products), it creates a significant environmental cost as only one layer of packaging is only actually needed to contain and maintain its contents.
There is a trend that the more packing means the product has a higher premium…or safer to consume as it contents are less likely to be tampered with or held by others. This is a false security and as consumers we need to send strong messages to the packaging industry that one layer is acceptable and multiple layers aren’t. Likewise for packaging that is to thick as this is also overpackaging of the product.
Indeed they should. just when it looks as if single use plastic bags will be banned everywhere,supermarkets are increasing their plastic single use, non-recylcable packaging. Are they mad or just bad? So another entire campaign will be needed to stop this latest abomination. Grrrrr
Fruit and vegetables are manageable by bringing ones own bags, providing products aren’t prepacked. However, even in states (and supermarkets) where single use bags are banned, the single use fruit and veg bags are still on offer and seem to be widely used.
Cellophane bags and packaging are an option for prepackaging.
(You can tell if the “plastic” used in packaging is cellophane or plastic quite simply: cellophane burns like paper; plastic blisters, bubbles or melts). Cellophane is a plant-based product and can be composted.
Some other products currently wrapped in plastic could be wrapped in cellophane too (toilet paper, frozen vegetables, cheeses etc.)
We are going to have to phase out plastics altogether if we are serious about:
keeping to 1.5˚C (or even 2˚C) of global warming
managing when oil gets too expensive/scarce
trying to rehabilitate the oceans and the critters who live there
Even recycling plastics (and other materials) uses large amounts of energy in transport and processing so recyclable plastics are not the answer.
Indeed, recycling should be the last resort, after reduce and reuse.
I think we are well beyond any hope of limiting to 1.5C, from what I have read the Paris agreement is more likely to result in 3C rise by the end of the century, and some in our govt and Trump in the US don’t even want to aim for that, since they don’t believe it is happening.
