Forget CPRS, fix the environment by stopping waste?

The more is hear about carbon tax, the more is see that it has nothing to do with the environment - its more about who will benefit financially.

So, I'm sitting here with my Smith bag of chips, crinkle cut......I open the bag and I find around 11 chips give or take a couple of broken off pieces.

I immediately realize the packaging - the bag is plastic on the outside beautifully printed in blue with chip pictures and aluminum foil inside. I got these chips from a box of 25 which my wife buys for the kids every week. The box is again painted in blue with chip pictures with handy opening tabs.

So for 11 potato chips, I'm flabbergasted at the amount of energy that must have been wasted just for me to eat these while writing this....and of which goes straight into the rubbish afterward.

If we were all serious about the environment, not just about carbon, we would be pressing governments to regulate the packaging of products!!

Cheers

Buckeroo said:

So for 11 potato chips, I'm flabbergasted at the amount of energy that must have been wasted just for me to eat these while writing this....and of which goes straight into the rubbish afterward.

If we were all serious about the environment, not just about carbon, we would be pressing governments to regulate the packaging of products!!

Cheers

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Additionally you could opt to sell that rubber, steel, painted, glass, plastic and carbon monoxide belching mobile and walk everywhere.

There might be reduction but there is no turning back for the human race until it`s over.

Buckeroo said:

So for 11 potato chips, I'm flabbergasted at the amount of energy that must have been wasted just for me to eat these while writing this....and of which goes straight into the rubbish afterward.

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It does not take long to eat 11 chips. Did you go for a second pack ?

As for waste junk mail is a pet hate of mine.

Wysiwyg said:

Additionally you could opt to sell that rubber, steel, painted, glass, plastic and carbon monoxide belching mobile and walk everywhere.

There might be reduction but there is no turning back for the human race until it`s over.

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True Wysiwgyg, but at least I can safely say it didn't come in a blue box

By the way, until whats over?

Cheers

drsmith said:

It does not take long to eat 11 chips. Did you go for a second pack ?

As for waste junk mail is a pet hate of mine.

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Started with 2, then went back for another 2. I did get the ol comment from the wife though "leave some for the kids lunches"!

Cheers

Buckeroo said:

By the way, until whats over?

Cheers

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When all the minerals and hydrocarbons are consumed, the water is polluted, the skies are grey, the ground is bare OR a disease takes out the species.

Buckeroo said:

By the way, until whats over?

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Only after the last tree has been cut down, Only after the last river has been poisoned, Only after the last fish has been caught, Only then will you find that money cannot be eaten.

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-- Cree Indian Prophecy

I have one like it on my wall

Easter Island is micro example, from the past, of what we are doing to the Planet. :disgust:

Overpackaging is a very big problem we have in todays society. I noticed in the fruit and veg dept. of a large food outlet the other day ... get this ... cucumbers heat shrunk in plastic. I observed a woman place this green phallic symbol neatly wrapped in its semisynthetic organic amorphous solid cover and place it into yet another plastic bag from the handy dispenser provided for customers merriment of placing such things. As luck would have it ... I happened to be behind her at the checkout, the same food group was placed yet again into a LARGER oily byproduct with handles attached. Jiminy Cricket! ... You wanna save the world. Get rid of plastic bags to begin with.

And so it starts (see PDF attachment).
I'm not saying that pursuit of knowledge is a bad thing, but notice how a new industry, based on nothingness, has already started. A way for some to make money out of others. Nothing to do with saving the whales, just more hot air. Plus an easy way of dividing the Liberals.

Buddy said:

And so it starts (see PDF attachment).
I'm not saying that pursuit of knowledge is a bad thing, but notice how a new industry, based on nothingness, has already started. A way for some to make money out of others. Nothing to do with saving the whales, just more hot air. Plus an easy way of dividing the Liberals.

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Bought are pair of earphones for my mp3 player today, cost $12 from a Harvey Norman throw away bucket (before you say cheapskate, its for when I do the gardening)

Anyway, don't bother using scissors, the plastic in this was about as thick as the metal plate on my car! It was out to the garage and grab the tin snips.

Now for $12, I reckon the packaging must have been worth at least $10!

Why do they do this? Its madness.

Cheers

trainspotter said:

Overpackaging is a very big problem we have in todays society. I noticed in the fruit and veg dept. of a large food outlet the other day ... get this ... cucumbers heat shrunk in plastic. I observed a woman place this green phallic symbol neatly wrapped in its semisynthetic organic amorphous solid cover and place it into yet another plastic bag from the handy dispenser provided for customers merriment of placing such things. As luck would have it ... I happened to be behind her at the checkout, the same food group was placed yet again into a LARGER oily byproduct with handles attached. Jiminy Cricket! ... You wanna save the world. Get rid of plastic bags to begin with.

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I suspect it was just a cheap way for her to get her plastic bags. Lots of people buy plastic bags to use as bin liners etc. The alternative is getting them free at the supermarket. There is also the environmentally friendly alternative of not using a bag at all, but then you get smelly stuff at the bottom of the bin and on the kitchen floor.

I think the thing wrong with all this is that very few people stand up and say enough is enough!!! Yet, and it's usually the case it comes down to "not in my backyard".

People say:

1. Plastic bags should go, yet not in my shop as I use them for bins at home, so I agree in principle, yet not in practice.

How about another:

2. The amount of plastic used, and thrown away for water bottles. Ahhh, you say, the water is better than tap water and hence it is better for me. Dont know about Australian stat's, yet in the US 60%+ of bottle water is from the tap - how about that. Any no one could tell the difference. And other excuses, I recycle mine. For what I ask, to put water in the fridge. MMM ... yet you brought it because the water from the tap was horrible? Whoops ... didnt think far enough ahead for that little gem.

3. Noticed if you by the so called ultra thin plasma TV's. 1 inch thick!!! Hows that for technology, yet the box it came in was big enough to build an extension on my house.

4. Why package something within another package. TS's example is a prime one. I see it all the time. Pre-chopped mushrooms in plastic wrap, then in another plaster bag from the plastic roller, then into the plastic bag to take home.

5. Drug packaging. Some tablets I took a while ago came in a box, which was inside an outer box, which had 4 little books inside, each of which said the same thing. Then inside the box inside the box the tablets were in another separate strip which had plastic, cardboard, and foil. All for, if I remember, 20 tablets.

I am at fault for all of the above, I use plastic bags, have purchased a bottle of water at times. Yet while I might not like it, and many bit*h and moan about it I dont see anything happening. Well not on a grand scale. Great for that town in NSW (I think) that banned plastic bags, yet I have to say a community of a few hundred makes no dent. Make the captial cities adopt this and then there will be real change.

So ... how do you stop it all? Dont buy the product? Then what, deprive yourself? Find another brand - hard when the rest do the same. I'm not sure much will change - sadly.

stocksontheblock said:

I think the thing wrong with all this is that very few people stand up and say enough is enough!!! Yet, and it's usually the case it comes down to "not in my backyard".

People say:

1. Plastic bags should go, yet not in my shop as I use them for bins at home, so I agree in principle, yet not in practice.

How about another:

2. The amount of plastic used, and thrown away for water bottles. Ahhh, you say, the water is better than tap water and hence it is better for me. Dont know about Australian stat's, yet in the US 60%+ of bottle water is from the tap - how about that. Any no one could tell the difference. And other excuses, I recycle mine. For what I ask, to put water in the fridge. MMM ... yet you brought it because the water from the tap was horrible? Whoops ... didnt think far enough ahead for that little gem.

3. Noticed if you by the so called ultra thin plasma TV's. 1 inch thick!!! Hows that for technology, yet the box it came in was big enough to build an extension on my house.

4. Why package something within another package. TS's example is a prime one. I see it all the time. Pre-chopped mushrooms in plastic wrap, then in another plaster bag from the plastic roller, then into the plastic bag to take home.

5. Drug packaging. Some tablets I took a while ago came in a box, which was inside an outer box, which had 4 little books inside, each of which said the same thing. Then inside the box inside the box the tablets were in another separate strip which had plastic, cardboard, and foil. All for, if I remember, 20 tablets.

I am at fault for all of the above, I use plastic bags, have purchased a bottle of water at times. Yet while I might not like it, and many bit*h and moan about it I dont see anything happening. Well not on a grand scale. Great for that town in NSW (I think) that banned plastic bags, yet I have to say a community of a few hundred makes no dent. Make the captial cities adopt this and then there will be real change.

So ... how do you stop it all? Dont buy the product? Then what, deprive yourself? Find another brand - hard when the rest do the same. I'm not sure much will change - sadly.

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Stocks

I think the town in NSW banned bottles of water for sale, not plastic bags. Personally, I do not buy bottled water - always bring it with me or use a bubbler if at the park or zoo with the kids

Well I guess it goes to show its all pretty hopeless in the end. I found this article from the SMH, dated Jan 10, 2008 (Ben Cubby, Environment Reporter).

The most appalling thing about it is that it was written 20 months ago and nothing has changed - in real-terms.

MMM ... I thought someone had banned the plastic bags. And yes Gooner, your right someone has also banned the plastic bottle, a place called Bundanoon in NSW. However, it is voluntary - whats the point?

----------------------

THE days of the plastic bag are numbered, with the Environment Minister, Peter Garrett, likely to impose either a levy on each bag handed to shoppers, or to ban them outright within 12 months.

Mr Garrett has confirmed he will move to phase out bags "by the end of the year", after consulting state governments in March. "He is committed to working co-operatively but with a legislative ban if necessary," a spokeswoman for Mr Garrett said.

Banning plastic bags, which are made from polluting petrochemicals and known to be deadly to wildlife, has been Labor policy since 2004, when it was announced by the former leader Mark Latham.

NSW and most other states have been pushing for levies or a ban since the Tasmanian village of Coles Bay became the first town to ban plastic bags altogether in 2003.

The move has been applauded by green groups but retailers, including major supermarket chains Coles and Woolworths, are still opposed to an enforced ban.

"It's just a simplification to contemplate banning plastic bags just because people see them floating in the water," the executive director of the Australian Retailers Association, Richard Evans, said.

"Where do you draw the line - fashion shops, local markets?"

Mr Evans said retailers were aware of the risks to the environment posed by free bag distribution but a system of voluntary compliance would work best and some shoppers wouldn't want to switch to paper bags.

Some businesses, such as Bunnings Warehouse, have already achieved massive cuts in plastic bag use by imposing a levy on each bag, while fast-food chains, including McDonald's, have switched to paper bags. Jon Dee, the founder of the environmental group Planet Ark, said consumers had been using paper bags and reusable bags for their shopping for many years and the move would present no problems.

"Plastic bags are a sign of environmental laziness because they carry that idea that 'out of sight is out of mind'," he said.

Mr Dee said there was a lack of co-ordinated research on the impact of plastic bags on wildlife but the amount of anecdotal evidence was "overwhelming".

As well as having the potential to strangle fish and some mammals, the average plastic shopping bag consumes about as much energy in its life cycle as a teaspoonful of crude oil.

Australia uses about 4 billion plastic bags a year, with most going to landfill. Even there, controlling bags is difficult; the waste depot at Eastern Creek in Sydney has some staff whose sole job is to collect bags that might otherwise enter the ocean.

The Federal Government's proposal came as China, which consumes as many bags in 48 hours as Australia does in a year, announced it would be imposing a levy on bags. Ireland cut plastic bag use by 90 per cent by imposing a levy.


Good, bad & ugly

- The energy consumed in the life cycle of a plastic bag is estimated to be equivalent to 13.8 millilitres of crude oil, or about a teaspoonful.


- Between 3.9 billion and 4.5 billion plastic bags were thought to have been used in Australia in 2005.

- 34 per cent fewer bags were used in 2005 than in 2002.

- Most lightweight plastic bags used in Australia are made overseas.