Change in law banning pre-packed fruit and vegetables at supermarkets - WTAF

[The39thStep]

People on the continent seem to manage.

Portuguese supermarkets are full of bags of mixed salads. Most of the fruit and veg though is loose occasionally you get paper bags to put vegetables and fruit in but otherwise its plastic bags. .

 

[planetgeli]

Your minor inconvenience vs a world full of plastic crap.

Hmm, that's a difficult one to know whose side to be on.

 

[gentlegreen]

This is going to complicate my shopping even as a minimalist shopper / eater....
I wonder how the tills will cope with me weighing 2 kilos of sprouts which is my standard purchase.

I will probably buy my own bags.
I'm not going to be chucking heads of broccoli straight into my much-used Ikea totes...

 

[iona]

This is going to complicate my shopping.
I will probably buy freezer bags and decant my veggies when I get home...
I wonder how the tills will cope with me weighing 2 kilos of sprouts ...

Just bring your own bag or whatever to weigh them in (assuming they won't still be providing either paper or supposedly compostable bags to weigh loose veg which I haven't actually seen stated anywhere?)

Fucking hell.

 

[Artaxerxes]

It’s a real fucking pet peeve you can’t buy veg by weight only in bags in a lot of express supermarkets, only 20p per banana or 60p per pepper vs a bag for much less


I have a feeling we’re still going to have to pay 60p for a pepper at the end of this though

 

[weepiper]

Good, now the local Tesco will have to sell me a single lemon when I want one as opposed to a prepackaged bag of five of the buggers.

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

This is going to complicate my shopping even as a minimalist shopper / eater....
I wonder how the tills will cope with me weighing 2 kilos of sprouts which is my standard purchase.

I will probably buy my own bags.
I'm not going to be chucking heads of broccoli straight into my much-used Ikea totes...

Maybe your inconvenience isn't the most vital thing here? You sound a bit like someone complaining they can't park their massive SUV within three feet of the school gate tbh.

 

[Elpenor]

Pretty certain that Aldi provide - for purchase - reusable bags for weighing loose veg

 

[jontz01]

It was one of the first things we noticed while recently living in the UK, coming home from Lidl or whatever and having to unwrap all the fruit and veg. There was a mountain of plastic, it just seemed absurd. This can only be a good move IMO.

I'm a bugger for using the paper mushroom/bakery bags for any loose produce. Just paper bag it in the shop and move on.

 

[TopCat]

The article is garbled it is not clear if it is talking about food waste or plastic waste. This might reduce the amount of plastic waste but it will increase food waste and/or put people of buying fresh fruit and veg.

How will it do those things?

 

[2hats]

They also squeeze everything before they buy it.

Woe betide you in Italian supermarkets if you don't use the provided disposable plastic gloves to handle your fruit and veg.

 

[skyscraper101]

Woe betide you in Italian supermarkets if you don't use the provided disposable plastic gloves to handle your fruit and veg.

Seriously? Seems a bit extreme. I mean you'd surely wash most stuff that you don't have to peel. At least I do. Haven't died yet anyway.

 

[May Kasahara]

I'm still laughing at the horror of other people squeezing the fruit and veg like we don't all have to brush up against other humans every day in this overpopulated landscape.

Other people's hands touch the poles and stuff on public transport. I seem to manage by washing my hands when I get to where I'm going.

 

[StoneRoad]

I gather one of the reasons that broccoli & cucumbers are sheathed in plastic is to extend their shelf life.

However, I would rather have the amount of non-biodegradable plastic significantly reduced.
Maybe, growing smaller cucumbers might help ?

I used to prefer buying loose fruit & veg, but since covid I'm wishing people with coughs / sneezes / digestive upsets {and general cleanliness issues} would mask up / use gloves, especially in these areas.

 

[Agent Sparrow]

I much prefer paper bags. For things like mushrooms. Delays deliquescence. But Read somewhere they’re not necessary actually less impactful environmentally.

Oh, that’s disappointing that paper bags aren’t better from an environmental perspective. I guess they’re more biodegradable but still need to be made, and can’t be recycled if they get too dirty.

 

[Epona]

I get absolutely incensed by stuff like - a shrink wrapped head of broccoli, at one price with the pack containing x amount of weight, rather than loose heads of broc where I can pick one an appropriate size for my requirements, pay only for what I need (often 40p for a small broc vs. £1 for a shrink wrapped larger amount that I will struggle to get through before it goes off).

See also: heads of celery in a plastic bag. Mushrooms in plastic punnets and packaging (which you have to take them out of when you get home to stop them going soggy). Apples in styrofoam punnets with plastic packaging. Courgettes/caulis etc. in plastic packaging. Packs of items that are larger than you actually need.

I think it's overall a good move.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

Devils in the detail of course. We need to use a lot less plastic, but plastic really is good at preserving stuff, it just needs to be used more sensibly.

 

[Epona]

Devils in the detail of course. We need to use a lot less plastic, but plastic really is good at preserving stuff, it just needs to be used more sensibly.

I think a lot of the way it is used by supermarkets is to determine a minimum amount of something that people have to buy, rather than buying a smaller amount that they need, which increases supermarket profit and food waste.
Plastic isn't great at preserving all fruits and veg - potatoes, carrots and mushrooms immediately spring to mind as things that will actually start to degrade quicker in plastic packaging - yet they are usually sold in plastic.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

I think a lot of the way it is used by supermarkets is to determine a minimum amount of something that people have to buy, rather than buying a smaller amount that they need, which increases supermarket profit and food waste.

Plastic and carboard packaging is also great to make a small amount of something look bigger, like tomatoes.

It would be a nightmare to sell something like kale without it.

 

[Epona]

Plastic and carboard packaging is also great to make a small amount of something look bigger, like tomatoes.

It would be a nightmare to sell something like kale without it.

Only if the kale is shredded. It doesn't come out of the ground like that, it resembles other brassicas that have all the leaves joined together on a stem, and could be sold as a head, or a portion of whole leaves tied with a piece of string, rather than a bagful.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

Only if the kale is shredded. It doesn't come out of the ground like that, it resembles other brassicas that have all the leaves joined together on a stem, and could be sold as a head, or a portion of whole leaves tied with a piece of string, rather than a bagful.

It's normally sold as leaves though, as it's harvested several times and the plant is left in the ground. You could just tie the leaves, but it deteriorates quickly. When my partner had her farm/veg box scheme she tried to use as little plastic as possible, but it's one of them that she did put in bags.

 

[AnnO'Neemus]

If you’re that worried about it get a veg box delivered, better quality, less packaging, likely to be organic and fewer people in the supply chain to spit on.

You’d definitely need to wash the veg though

I know veg boxes work for some households, but I've tried a veg box a handful of times, open it up, find a few potatoes, a couple of carrots and onions, something random like celeriac or fennel, and inevitably I'm left standing there thinking 'But I can't make a meal out of that, what am I supposed to have for dinner?'

And so then I dig a pizza out of the freezer or have some cheese on toast.

 

[Epona]

It's normally sold as leaves though, as it's harvested several times and the plant is left in the ground. You could just tie the leaves, but it deteriorates quickly. When my partner had her farm/veg box scheme she tried to use as little plastic as possible, but it's one of them that she did put in bags.

That's fair - it is the exception rather than the rule though, most fruit and veg do not need to be bagged up or shrink wrapped for sale.

 

[polly]

Oh, that’s disappointing that paper bags aren’t better from an environmental perspective. I guess they’re more biodegradable but still need to be made, and can’t be recycled if they get too dirty.

I cannot believe that paper bags are as bad for the environment as plastic. They can be composted and re-used, and even if they are just chucked into landfill they'll biodegrade quickly. Is the manufacturing process THAT harmful??

 

[Epona]

If you’re that worried about it get a veg box delivered, better quality, less packaging, likely to be organic and fewer people in the supply chain to spit on.

You’d definitely need to wash the veg though

Veg boxes don't really work for people who are on a tight budget and actually want to buy less of something though - they're most definitely for those with more money to spend.
I love the idea of a "veg adventure" every week, but my life isn't in any way like that - it would result in me ending up with more stuff than I need, that I struggle to use, at twice the price that I'd spend on loose veg if I just choose the exact items in the exact quantity that I want.
It's not all about the plastic packaging, it's about the ability to buy the quantity of items you actually need - and while veg boxes are typically great at the former, they are dreadful at the latter - and not really for those on a tight budget.

 

[Puddy_Tat]

Having looked for a few more articles, it sounds like it's still at the proposal stage rather than law with a definite implementation date, which (my take on it) means it may not happen if parliament doesn't find the time / gets preoccupied with other stuff like the general election

november article in 'the grocer' here

metro article here includes

more delicate foods, such as soft fruit, can still be sold in plastic.

 

[AnnO'Neemus]

Why will it put people off buying fruit and veg? We never had plastic wrapped bananas in the 70s and before and nobody was put off buying bananas then.

A lot of stores provide bags that can already be reused.

I really don't get the problem

It would put me off. I've wasted so much food and money over the years, as a single person, buying fresh broccoli and green beans etc, and then either throwing them all away or eating a little bit one night and then a week or so later throwing the wilted, perhaps mouldy, rest in the bin.

I really like broccoli and green beans. I have good intentions and buy veg to eat. But in reality, after working all day and commuting, I often get home and can't be arsed cooking. And sometimes, even when I want to cook, the thought of creating dirty dishes and having to wash all the pots and pans is too much.

Much like laundry, washing dishes is just too fucking relentless a task when you live by yourself and there's no one else to take a turn.

So a few months ago, I started buying those preprepared microwave vegetable 'side dishes', just a tub of mixed broccoli and peas and beans or leeks and cabbage or whatever, eating it with some precooked salmon or chicken.

If they stopped selling them, I'd probably go back to eating more microwave meals and pizzas, or just having a bag of crisps and a glass of wine for my dinner. I'm just fed up of doing dishes for no good reason. I mean, I'd see the point if I was making a meal for other people, but cooking for one is the domestic equivalent of shooting myself in the foot. I'm fifty-something and tired after decades of doing dishes.

[/Rant about doing dishes]

 

[iona]

It's normally sold as leaves though, as it's harvested several times and the plant is left in the ground. You could just tie the leaves, but it deteriorates quickly. When my partner had her farm/veg box scheme she tried to use as little plastic as possible, but it's one of them that she did put in bags.

None of the market gardens I've worked on or bought from have ever bagged their kale...

 

[MickiQ]

Broadly in favour there really is way too much non-recycleable/non-reusuable plastic used for this sort of thing. It's a case of greater benefits for the many outweigh the inconveniencing of the few.
Even if people do start bringing their own little plastic bags like freezer bags, the amount of plastic waste will drop by many thousands of tons which is deffo a good thing.
Besides necessity is the mother of both invention and the chance for a quick profit, we use decompostable bin liners that actually made from plant starch rather than plastic. I can imagine the manufacturers of such branching out into a new line of business. Like others I just can't believe that paper bags are even remotely near as bad on the eco front as plastic ones.

 

[MickiQ]

It would put me off. I've wasted so much food and money over the years, as a single person, buying fresh broccoli and green beans etc, and then either throwing them all away or eating a little bit one night and then a week or so later throwing the wilted, perhaps mouldy, rest in the bin.

I really like broccoli and green beans. I have good intentions and buy veg to eat. But in reality, after working all day and commuting, I often get home and can't be arsed cooking. And sometimes, even when I want to cook, the thought of creating dirty dishes and having to wash all the pots and pans is too much.

Much like laundry, washing dishes is just too fucking relentless a task when you live by yourself and there's no one else to take a turn.

So a few months ago, I started buying those preprepared microwave vegetable 'side dishes', just a tub of mixed broccoli and peas and beans or leeks and cabbage or whatever, eating it with some precooked salmon or chicken.

If they stopped selling them, I'd probably go back to eating more microwave meals and pizzas, or just having a bag of crisps and a glass of wine for my dinner. I'm just fed up of doing dishes for no good reason. I mean, I'd see the point if I was making a meal for other people, but cooking for one is the domestic equivalent of shooting myself in the foot. I'm fifty-something and tired after decades of doing dishes.

[/Rant about doing dishes]

Get a dishwasher I love it, they will pry mine out of my cold dead hands and even then they will have a fight for it.