How can we rethink packaging to win the war on plastic?

Yes you are right Malcolm, we have to try to minimise the packaging used, in fact we have spent the past 3 years working on a way to add our patented consumer friendly ‘active ingredient’ directly onto the ‘top seal’ film that you see on most packaged fruit – that way we are using the existing substrates within the supply chain but making them smarter – it is launching later this year. As for your second point, it is true we have become spoilt with the huge variety of choice that we have come to enjoy and expect. As a child I remember going to the local greengrocer with my grandfather and buying the best of what was ‘in season’ and that taught me to respect fresh produce and to enjoy it while it lasted. Perhaps nowadays because it is so easily available 365 days a year, it’s too easy to buy more than you need and discard what isn’t used. Having said that, the retail supply chain does an incredible job of introducing us to such wondrous fresh produce like avocados, kiwis, pineapples, bananas, mangoes and papayas that to my knowledge cant be successfully grown commercially in the UK – so for that, I am grateful.

Hi wavechange, The MAP that is used in fruit and vegetable packaging is not the ‘gas flush’ type as used in meats, it consists of highly technical gas permeable film substrates (of which there are many types), that alters the atmosphere according to the interaction between the product respiration rate and the transfer of gasses through the pack.

Your assumption regarding our technology is correct, our patented blend of consumer-friendly minerals and clay (zeolite), adsorbs the ethylene molecule and locks it away, thereby decreasing respiration rates, metabolic activity and microbial growth within the pack.

Education is key in helping us all to understand how to respect and treat our precious produce, from growing to global transportation to storage in the home.

Thanks for this information Alex. If these coffee pods are compostable then it’s good news. I wonder if Which? has tested these pods to see if they are genuinely compostable. Home composting is not as effective as commercial composting.

How many people make compost these days, or have the garden to do so? Far better to make coffee in ways that don’t need packaging in this way, in my view.

Addressing our waste problem is more about reducing the amount of stuff we have to throw away, like excessive or unnecessary packaging, than about how to handle the mountains we continue to produce, whether it can be recycled or not..

Coffee pod machines make better coffee than filter coffee, cafetieres, etc. because they use hot water at high pressure. Maybe not as good as conventional pressure machines but cheaper to buy, and easier to use and keep clean. Compostable capsules/pods are an improvement but the best answer is to have refillable capsules. Until then I will stick to filter coffee and use the pressure machine occasionally.

alfa, it is worth buying just a few permanent resealable containers to deal with this. Then the minimum plastic needs to be used and thrown out.

We had two delicious fruit tartlets yesterday – pastry shell, creme patisserie and fresh fruits on top. They were rather delicate, so came in a black plastic moulded tray with a clear plastic moulded cover. In view of the Convos – including mine – I did wonder how else they could have been protected, both in getting to the shop and then to my plate without damage. Any ideas? In this case, I’d probably stick with PET which seems totally recyclable into more useful packaging.

It’s worth thinking about whether potentially recycled materials such as paper and some plastics are recycled if they are contaminated with food. Buy a sandwich and the mayonnaise etc will contaminate the packet, meaning that it is put in the non-recyclable waste or the it contaminates the content of the recycling bin.

It would be interesting to know how contamination with food affects recyclability of plastics.

We do transfer some things, but there is not a lot of spare room in our fridge for larger containers.

Delicate items packed into larger packs will get a certain amount of protection. When you take them off the shelf, you will probably go the extra lengths required to get them home in one piece. But when you buy them online and they get chucked in a carrier bag or box, they often don’t resemble their original state.

I think plastics get washed as the first stage of recycling.

Your photo above looks as if as if it had been handled roughly during delivery. 🙁 Some items on sale are fragile and one of the reasons that manufacturers ‘overpackage’ them is to minimise damage.

But there is a limit to how much soup you can freeze and how many screws you can store. I’ve a stash of rectangular tins that once held extra strong mints. Looking for a use.

I make my own soup and polypropylene soup containers can be used quite a few times for storing portions in the freezer. If I buy soup it’s usually when it’s half price or less and I can use it promptly, which provides the containers, but rarely do I have a surplus. The odd one gets used to clean paint brushes.

I used to freeze soup and other home-cooked food in small Pyrex bowls/basins with plastic lids. Many have told me that glass will crack in the freezer but it does not if the container has sloping sides. Unfortunately the lids failed after years of use and I cannot find replacements. That’s why I now use soup containers.

Thanks Beryl. The Guardian usually does better at reporting science. One thing we can be sure of is that a successful process for using bacteria to break down plastics will take years to develop. Even if it does become practical, it’s not a substitute for reusing them, cutting down consumption and having organised recycling.

Manufacturers should show the ‘resin identification code’ in a triangle. From Wikipedia:

The problem in the UK is that not all councils accept the same plastics in recycling bins. That results in the wrong plastics being put int he bins and lowers the value of the waste. The obvious answer is for the government to require all councils to recycle the same plastics. It would be useful to standardise on the colour of waste bins at the same time.

A problem with raw chicken is that it can be heavily contaminated with campylobacter. If meat juices come into contact with cooked food or food that is eaten raw (e.g. salads) this can cause food poisoning. Plastics are probably the best way of dealing with this problem, but maybe Asda are using more than necessary. It would be good to establish best practice and instruct manufacturers to follow it.

I think we do need to make a fuss, because a great deal of plastic is not recycled. I’m pleased to see that some companies are using protective packaging based on cardboard. That is recyclable and if it does get into our rivers and oceans it is less of a problem.