Going Green...is it worth it?

Some things I don't know.
How much of what goes in the recycling actually gets recycled and into what? apparently greasy pizza boxes aren't recyclable, Ao what happens to those if they are all in the same green bin as jars and cans?
Also what if jars and cans aren't clean?

Also I see that the plastic bag 'ban' reduces usage, and that plastic based wet-wipes clog up sewers.
But the latest fad is a ban on plastic straws and cotton buds and coffee cups. This all seems very minor when you see how much packaging there is in supermarkets which is a mix of hard and soft plastic, cardboard, laminates. Or if you buy anything electrical how much packaging there is with polystyrene which i think is unrecyclable.
 
MarkG said:
Some things I don't know.
How much of what goes in the recycling actually gets recycled and into what? apparently greasy pizza boxes aren't recyclable, Ao what happens to those if they are all in the same green bin as jars and cans?
Also what if jars and cans aren't clean?

Also I see that the plastic bag 'ban' reduces usage, and that plastic based wet-wipes clog up sewers.
But the latest fad is a ban on plastic straws and cotton buds and coffee cups. This all seems very minor when you see how much packaging there is in supermarkets which is a mix of hard and soft plastic, cardboard, laminates. Or if you buy anything electrical how much packaging there is with polystyrene which i think is unrecyclable.
Click to expand...

A ban on disposable coffee cups isn't minor, we as a country go through many, many millions (if not billions) of them. We criticise the US (rightly in plenty of cases) but they have a far bigger usage of reusable cups that customers bring in to Coffee shops.

I do agree that packaging has to be reduced and recyclable materials found for the job. But I think it will be an incremental steps approach, and possibly the biggest steps will be if the EU takes measures like they did with the power usage by Vacuum Cleaners
 
Personally, I think we are going to have to 'tech' our way out of the waste mess. Packaging is inevitable in a consumer society that doesn't grow it's own food (oh for the merry days of feudalism!) - but surely scientists must be able to either create a properly biodegradable plastic (i.e. one that doesn't just break down into very small bits of the same plastic!) or we are going to have to switch (back) to cardboard, paper and cellophane rather than plastic, packaging 'whotsits' made from potato starch rather than expanded polystyrene etc.
 
Tesco could help by not selling things like peppers at a discount when packaged in a plastic bag in 3s, or putting bananas in plastic bags... Just little things like that will have a cumulative effect.
 
SteMerritt said:
Tesco could help by not selling things like peppers at a discount when packaged in a plastic bag in 3s, or putting bananas in plastic bags... Just little things like that will have a cumulative effect.
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I see Morrison's are starting to introduce plastic free veg/fruit aisles after a trial. An easy win for the supermarkets.
 
Not doing anything individually is just like not voting because one vote doesn’t make a difference: it misses the point.

Interestingly regarding population, you could again say that China has contributed more to saving the earth than other countries through their child policy that ran for many years. Without it China might be >2M people by now. Another example of the kind of planet saving that is more possible with an authoritarian rather than libertarian society.
 
One is the dichotomy of potentially penalising people for not recycling (or whatever) to get people engaged, but then complaining about how many people genuinely struggle to make ends meet and have to use food banks. You have to be so careful about financial penalties that some are talking about, because you don't want to make the poor even poorer and increase fly tipping.

Even buying electric or hybrid cars, it's a nice thing for people who can afford to do it, but until they become a cheap commodity, the poor are further disenfranchised, especially with home charging and cost of replacing batteries. Sadly, there is not enough realistic real world thought about how to make our planet better to live in for all. Windmills won't save us

Further. China is living proof you can sign bits of paper, but actions speak louder than words. They, like many other nations, will do what is right for them over and above the planet.
 
Gary Baldi said:
One is the dichotomy of potentially penalising people for not recycling (or whatever) to get people engaged, but then complaining about how many people genuinely struggle to make ends meet and have to use food banks. You have to be so careful about financial penalties that some are talking about, because you don't want to make the poor even poorer and increase fly tipping.

Even buying electric or hybrid cars, it's a nice thing for people who can afford to do it, but until they become a cheap commodity, the poor are further disenfranchised, especially with home charging and cost of replacing batteries. Sadly, there is not enough realistic real world thought about how to make our planet better to live in for all. Windmills won't save us

Further. China is living proof you can sign bits of paper, but actions speak louder than words. They, like many other nations, will do what is right for them over and above the planet.
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I don't understand some of this.

What exactly is the link between fining people for not recycling and those having to use food banks? Are you saying that people who do wrong (littering, driving without insurance, shoplifting etc) shouldn't be fined because it might tip them into poverty? If people fly tip then you can't let them off because they are poor - that way lies madness! You'd create a whole industry of people dumping crap all over the city streets and the countryside. If you don't want to be fined, just don't be a pillock. People know they should be recycling, if they are too bone idle to put a bit of paper in a different bin than their potato peelings then they need to be taught different.

I agree that electric cars are expensive. But as yet there is no real financial penalty for having an older petrol car - by the time there is, electric cars will be available second hand. Windmills won't save us. But they will help. Add in hydro-electric, solar, tidal and geothermal and that might make a very large difference.
 
Here in Holland my local supermarket has give the old-fashioned brown paper sack for fruit and veg a return to glory. Of course meat and fish are still packed in plastic, but it is a start. The local council supports recycling by providing free (large plastic) sacks for collection of plastic, drink cartons, and beer cans. Also we have separate wheely bins for green and food rubbish, paper, and other stuff.
Still a lot more can be done but if you take the point of view that it's a drop in the ocean, it will remain so. We must start somewhere and try to educate other lands to do likewise. A really tough job but if we don't tackle it we will kill our planet.
 
Single use of water bottles should be stopped. Companies like Costco selling plastic bottles in huge numbers is a problem.
Large packaging of razor blades.
Amazon using huge boxes for small items is another.
It’s easy to suggest consumers should stop buying certain things but manufacturers if faced with additional costs for production with taxes should effectively deter them.
 
Plastic is a real problem. It can't actually be truly recycled like metals or glass can. High grade plastics can be downcycled to low grade plastics and low grade plastics can't be recycled at all.
For this reason it's misleading when plastic packaging has "recycling" instructions on it. It's still only 2 uses from becoming landfill.
 
A s
Malc said:
Here in Holland my local supermarket has give the old-fashioned brown paper sack for fruit and veg a return to glory. Of course meat and fish are still packed in plastic, but it is a start. The local council supports recycling by providing free (large plastic) sacks for collection of plastic, drink cartons, and beer cans. Also we have separate wheely bins for green and food rubbish, paper, and other stuff.
Still a lot more can be done but if you take the point of view that it's a drop in the ocean, it will remain so. We must start somewhere and try to educate other lands to do likewise. A really tough job but if we don't tackle it we will kill our planet.
Click to expand...
A Supermarket in Oxford is currently trialling a packaging free approach. Think it was Waitrose, but might be wrong
 
Oslernorth said:
A s

A Supermarket in Oxford is currently trialling a packaging free approach. Think it was Waitrose, but might be wrong
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It is Waitrose but Morrison's are also going down that route for Veg/fruit and allowing the shoppers own containers for fish/Meat from the Deli Counters.
 
The fill your own tub thing feels quite a niche thing, and dare I say, middle class. I'm not saying don't do it or even try it, but are there better ways to go about it? Perhaps looking at cereal packaging or have a tub swap scheme instead?
 
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