Let your melons hang loose
Buy loose fruit and vegetables rather than plastic wrapped ones. According to a study by the Local Government Association, almost 40 per cent of supermarket food packaging cannot be easily recycled.
In addition, packaging can add 20% to the cost of your food; you then pay again for the disposal of that packaging through council tax! Let your fresh produce breathe easily and buy exactly what you need to reduce food waste!
Read more tips on reducing the amount of plastic waste you send to landfill.
Here in Washington State, USA, we don’t have the tax. Personally I’m in favor of some sort of legislation restricting the use and production of plastic bags and bottles. I noticed not long back that Sobe had started using plastic bottles instead of glass. Bad. On the bright side, at least they’re using sugar now instead of High Fructose Corn Syrup.
Hi again, Mrs. Green!
I was thinking just about that the other day. I was amazed to find my local biostore in Rome still using litte plastic bags and gloves for measuring and labeling fruits and vegetables. I suppose I could bring my own paper bags (even though I should buy them), but I still have to single-label each item. Hm, what’s a girl to do if she wants to bring her own basket? I was thinking about talking to the store manager and see what we can do about that…any ideas how to change the system?
@Borislava: I’m wondering if on items like melons you could put the label directly onto the fruit instead of needing a bag at all. Other than that, the paper bags would be an option…
Yes, I did that several times, including avocados. But for all the rest…I was thinking about some spare sheets of recycled paper to attach the labels onto and a small basket on the scale. You put the vegetables, measure, print the label and attach in a single row onto the sheet of paper and that’s what you present at checkout. Yes, it will be a matter of trust from the store owners that you didn’t get any extra apples in you basket, but isn’t it already?