Hope in the pipeline?
4 Likes
I am a skeptic. These microbes usually need special environments to allow plastic consumption. The worldâs oceans (rivers, land etc where fugitive plastic exists) are vastly different, alternative hostile environments.
I wonder if such news is more about hope than a real solution? It also gives the plastic industry opportunity to spin when criticism arises.
3 Likes
It is in the realm of âhopeâ at this juncture, But if one considers the possibilities (and potential horrors) of genetic engineering it may not be so easily dismissed, or it could lead to âfactoriesâ with the required environment for the microbes to survive and work.
Any advance will beat the spectre of the ongoing accumulation of plastics.
3 Likes
With the removal of plastic single-use carry bags from Coles and Woolworths, why is it that the thin single-use bags in the fruit and veg section are still offered? Most shoppers still use these, often for every type of item purchased. Surely these are just as much of a problem and just as easy to replace?
7 Likes
Good question! These are even more âsingle useâ than the large bags.
Selling and weighing of non bagged fruit and some veg would be problematic for supermarkets, but our District Council is now offering bio-degradable plastic bags for bin liners. Alternatively, what about good old paper bags?
2 Likes
⊠or no bags at all. I bought a stack of oranges, apples, bananas and a few other grocery items without any need for a bag last week. I used a shop basket to collect it all, then put everything into the 2 silk bags I took with me to take them back to the car.
People really need to get over plastic for shopping and move on, relpacing thin bags with wads (Iâve seen people grabbing far more than they need in the shop) of slightly thicker bags is not a solution to the serious plastic environmental disaster now in progress.
6 Likes
I too often use no bags for fruit and veg.
The other place these bags are used it at the butcherâevery item is bagged in the same thin plastic bags. I have requested that they use my (reused) plastic bags, but apparently this is not allowed for health reasons. Likewise, at supermarket delicatessens, everything goes into a single-use plastic bag that cannot be brought back for re-use.
As a society we need to come up with alternatives to the ubiquitous plastic bag/plastic wrap that has taken over packaging in the last 30-40 years.
5 Likes
Yes the idea that thicker is somehow more eco friendly only suits when they are used many multiples of times and are not a purchase at every time a person shops. Then as you know the plastic regardless of times used becomes at some point landfill or rubbish in the wind/water and because it is thicker adds more plastic than a thinner bag, uses more petro-chemicals to even make in the first place, and really is just the same form of pollution as plastic ever was. Cotton, Sisal, Jute, Wool, Silk, paper, hemp, any biodegradable and reusable (needs to be both) products are what are needed both to conserve resources in their manufacture and use but also to reuse in their breakdown to restore resources to the environment.
4 Likes
Before plastic became so ubiquitous in our daily lives we did use alternatives, eg Butcherâs paper, waxed paper, string/twine but their use dictated that the items wrapped in these needed to be unwrapped as soon as possible and stored in appropriate containers on arrival at home. This has been lost in the rush to convenience but the price we are paying for this convenience is too huge now.
6 Likes
A must read article of plastics in UK Supermarkets (about 1/3 difficult to recycle), I think we would find the Australian experience closely resembles the UK one.
Isnât âWhich?â a sister organisation to Choice? If so would it be worthwhile doing a similar study here and combining the results for a larger impact statement?
6 Likes
Exactlyâmany other natural products were used.
I hear a surprising amount of resistance to reducing plastic use. We need government regulation to push the development and use of plastic alternatives.
There are now compostable bagsâI havenât seen them in supermarkets but they can be bought online. And my local council provides them for our council-collected kitchen waste scheme. The âdegradableâ bags just break down into smaller pieces of plastic!
5 Likes
Remember what delicatessens used âbefore plastic bagsâ - they used grease proof paper for some things and butchers paper for other things.
And butchers used ⊠butchers paper.
5 Likes
Thatâs a bit harsh, surely?
We go to Adams at Carole Park in Brisbane occasionally, and they still use grease proof paperâŠwhich is a rarity. The only thing is one has to ask for the food items not to then placed in a freezer style bag at the end of the purchase (we usually take our own cooler bag with ice brick to place the foods in so that they maintain temperature on the way home).
4 Likes
In Indonesia i take shopping bags everywhere with me. Only one chain is showing signs of discouraging single use bags. But most are far behind, using numerous bags and always separating cleaning products etc from food - though the packaging is not at fault. Rubbish bins are few and rarely emptied. The amount of litter, and sidelining of the issue, is monumentally depressing as has been well publicised.
But finding safe containers for food is a real problem. With a long tradition of take-away food, many still use the traditional leaf wrapping or waxed paper - but then it has to go in a small reasonably leakproof throwaway bag - especially as it is usually transported to home or work by motorbike.
But how to teach different habits to impoverished millions? In Australia it must have taken 20 years to teach us not to litter.
2 Likes
There must have been a great many cases of truancy in FNQ.
1 Like
Have you considered taking your own containers when going out to get some take away food?
It has the advantage of one knowing it is clean (as one has cleaned it on self) and also may be stronger than those provided by local take away outlets.
You may start a trend and might get a concession from the takeaway owner for providing your own.
4 Likes
Queensland is entertaining the idea to ban some single use plasticsâŠ
And to potentially close the heavy plastic bag loophole.
3 Likes
Whilst driving yesterday, the only litter I saw on the roadside was from Maccas and Hungry Jacks.
Paper bags, drink cups, plastic straws and the like.
Either ban it all or put in into the container deposit schemeâŠ
4 Likes
Yep put a deposit price on the product so most will return it or will collect it and return it. I donât think you would see so much floating around if they did.
4 Likes
