Drowning In Plastic

[Chelsea14Ian]

Think you are right,plastic came along and every thing was wrapped, put in it etc.The tech is there to replace much of the plastic. Think we and other first world countries need to recycle plastic .We made the mess,we should sort it.

[MauriceMynah]

I'm trying to think of things I have done, and things I can do to reduce my plastic usage.

I already use fabric shopping bags, and buy my vegies loose. It annoys me that they cost more loose than pre packed.at Tesco's. What other suggestions do you all have?

[JennyMorgan]

1 hour ago, MauriceMynah said:

I'm trying to think of things I have done, and things I can do to reduce my plastic usage.

I already use fabric shopping bags, and buy my vegies loose. It annoys me that they cost more loose than pre packed.at Tesco's. What other suggestions do you all have?

Shop at Lidl!

[Meantime]

1 hour ago, JennyMorgan said:

Shop at Lidl!

You know what they say, every Lidl helps

[JennyMorgan]

1 hour ago, EastCoastIPA said:

You know what they say, every Lidl helps

Not sure that Tesco would agree with you 

[vanessan]

4 hours ago, MauriceMynah said:

I'm trying to think of things I have done, and things I can do to reduce my plastic usage.

I already use fabric shopping bags, and buy my vegies loose. It annoys me that they cost more loose than pre packed.at Tesco's. What other suggestions do you all have?

I think Tesco’s have cottoned on to the fact that customers are beginning to favour loose veggies over pre-packed. Previously, loose stuff was marginally cheaper if not the same price. I have also found recently that farm shops have increased their prices, many no longer seem such good value. 

[JennyMorgan]

Near where I live there is Beccles Farmer's Market and very good it's always been. From a point of view of value it's never been that good. Despite there being no middle man there does seem to be a perception that what is on offer are premium products therefore justifying a higher price. I'm not entirely convinced by that argument but the burgers and mugs of tea on offer make a visit to the market worthwhile. Bit of a social event really.

[Chelsea14Ian]

When I can I visit farmers market.I agree never always cheap.Supermarkets have purchasing power.That said I like to support local shops,farms when I can.

[Cockatoo]

I would guess that most farmers markets are selling stuff they can't sell to the supermarkets for one reason or another.

As far as single use plastics go, if people generally are too bone idle.to.do.anything then we need legislation. Ban it, then after a reasonable period for old stock to be used up start fining any companies packaging that is found 'in the wild' to pay for the clear up. And make the fines really hurt.

Sent from the Norfolk Broads Network mobile app

[Malanka]

Fining a company for the actions of a third party would make for interesting legislation. Especially if said plastic got there by the acts of a government agency. The government fining itself, very interesting times me thinks.

 

M

[Cockatoo]

Fining a company for the actions of a third party would make for interesting legislation. Especially if said plastic got there by the acts of a government agency. The government fining itself, very interesting times me thinks.
 
M

I think, although a bit Draconian, it's the only way we will get them to stop producing it.

Last week I found a black bag floating in the river just above Wroxham bridge. Of course it split as we tried to lift it out of the water and made a right mess. We managed to get most of it before it floated away but it was mostly plastic from which the manufacturer was easily identified.

It's easy to say that there should be more bins but boaters need to be more responsible as well and not perch full rubbish bags on the rear decks, think about packaging when you buy stuff, unpack shopping and get rid of the packaging before you.leave the yard etc. We know this isn't going to happen because people are inherently lazy so we need to hit them in the pocket. Manufacturers are the only ones to go after. Obviously they will pass the costs on to the consumer and people will have a choice. Buy sensibly packed stuff or pay more for the convenient, packed in plastic, already peeled and chopped stuff but pay well over the odds for it. The price difference has to be big enough to really make people think.

Sorry for the rant. I'm not some tree hugging crusty but this really presses one of my buttons.

Anyone mention rough sleepers?

Sent from the Norfolk Broads Network mobile app

[Meantime]

1 hour ago, SteveDuk said:

I think, although a bit Draconian, it's the only way we will get them to stop producing it.

Last week I found a black bag floating in the river just above Wroxham bridge. Of course it split as we tried to lift it out of the water and made a right mess. We managed to get most of it before it floated away but it was mostly plastic from which the manufacturer was easily identified.

It's easy to say that there should be more bins but boaters need to be more responsible as well and not perch full rubbish bags on the rear decks, think about packaging when you buy stuff, unpack shopping and get rid of the packaging before you.leave the yard etc. We know this isn't going to happen because people are inherently lazy so we need to hit them in the pocket. Manufacturers are the only ones to go after. Obviously they will pass the costs on to the consumer and people will have a choice. Buy sensibly packed stuff or pay more for the convenient, packed in plastic, already peeled and chopped stuff but pay well over the odds for it. The price difference has to be big enough to really make people think.

Sorry for the rant. I'm not some tree hugging crusty but this really presses one of my buttons.

Anyone mention rough sleepers?

Sent from the Norfolk Broads Network mobile app
 

Fining the manufacturers will not solve the problem. The whole issue needs looking at again from start to finish and people all along the chain need to be made accountable.

A recent news investigation showed pink recycling sacks from my local and a neighbouring local authority containing fully recyclable waste in a land fill in Indonesia of all places. It would appear the local residents had done their part by dutifully sorting and packing into the right coloured bags and containers items for recycling. The local authority has then been going around and collecting the waste and boasting about how they are meeting their recycling targets and aim to recycle even more in the coming years. One would assume they then recycle the waste into a usable product, but no they don't have the facilities. Instead they pay a private company to accept the waste at their facility and effectively claim they have met their recycling targets. Turns out this private company sorts the waste and takes the most valuable and easily recyclable waste and makes a profit from it. The less desirable waste which could still be recycled but at a higher cost is then bundled up and another company is then paid to take it away. This second company put it into large containers and ship it half way around the world to third world countries for them to dispose of it in landfill. Meanwhile the local authority give themselves a pat on the back for having met their recycling targets.

These are items that are full recyclable and have been marked as such and sorted for recycling. It is so disappointing to see them end up in landfill. The government needs to put together national standards for recycling starting with standardising the containers and bags that are used for recycling. They then need to put together a national public infrastructure for dealing with the processing of recyclable waste that the local authorities can send the recycling to. There should be a chain of responsibility for the waste from collection to final recycling and it should stay in the public sector the whole time, not allowing private companies to milk off profits along the way and then dump the unprofitable waste.

Why is it that every local authority has a different list of what they can recycle, different targets and different coloured bags or containers. As a resident of the UK I should be able to move anywhere around the country and know immediately what items go in what bin.

[vanessan]

2 hours ago, EastCoastIPA said:

Fining the manufacturers will not solve the problem. The whole issue needs looking at again from start to finish and people all along the chain need to be made accountable.

A recent news investigation showed pink recycling sacks from my local and a neighbouring local authority containing fully recyclable waste in a land fill in Indonesia of all places. It would appear the local residents had done their part by dutifully sorting and packing into the right coloured bags and containers items for recycling. The local authority has then been going around and collecting the waste and boasting about how they are meeting their recycling targets and aim to recycle even more in the coming years. One would assume they then recycle the waste into a usable product, but no they don't have the facilities. Instead they pay a private company to accept the waste at their facility and effectively claim they have met their recycling targets. Turns out this private company sorts the waste and takes the most valuable and easily recyclable waste and makes a profit from it. The less desirable waste which could still be recycled but at a higher cost is then bundled up and another company is then paid to take it away. This second company put it into large containers and ship it half way around the world to third world countries for them to dispose of it in landfill. Meanwhile the local authority give themselves a pat on the back for having met their recycling targets.

These are items that are full recyclable and have been marked as such and sorted for recycling. It is so disappointing to see them end up in landfill. The government needs to put together national standards for recycling starting with standardising the containers and bags that are used for recycling. They then need to put together a national public infrastructure for dealing with the processing of recyclable waste that the local authorities can send the recycling to. There should be a chain of responsibility for the waste from collection to final recycling and it should stay in the public sector the whole time, not allowing private companies to milk off profits along the way and then dump the unprofitable waste.

Why is it that every local authority has a different list of what they can recycle, different targets and different coloured bags or containers. As a resident of the UK I should be able to move anywhere around the country and know immediately what items go in what bin.

I was going to pick off bits of ECIPA’s post and make comments but I find I would be quoting almost all of it anyway. I couldn’t agree more with the post and find it incredibly sad that we cannot coordinate recycling across the UK. As for recyclable waste going thousands of miles to be dumped, well that just beggars belief! Am I surprised though? No, not really. It seems local authorities (including those that call themselves an Authority) will bend and manipulate the rules in any way they see fit to make themselves look good. It’s a good thing that the truth eventually comes out - as long as something is then done about it. But I won’t hold my breath!

[grendel]

I just have 2 words - Milk bottles

they used to be glass, the milk company would come and take them from your front door, they would then be washed and returned full of new fresh milk.

now we have few proper milkmen, bottles are plastic (I suppose glass breaks and is a health and safety hazard), thousands of milk containers get thrown. 

a lot of councils wont accept glass in the recycling (that safety hazard yet again) yet it is the one material that is almost infinitely recyclable.

[grendel]

we have inserts in our bins to segregate the paper and card- well we did until someone came along and stole all of the inserts

[Meantime]

3 hours ago, grendel said:

we have inserts in our bins to segregate the paper and card- well we did until someone came along and stole all of the inserts

I hope the inserts were recycled?

[Malanka]

Over 95% of the plastic in the oceans flows there down rivers in ASIA. So let’s get all aid stopped to those nations that don’t get their houses in order with recycling plastic. Personally I would decimate the arsey farty world of plastic bottled water straight away. use up all the land fill in this country before we go using anyone else’s, there’s only 1000 years worth to go so let’s get started. We should only landfill what we can’t incinerate as they do in Sweden and in Switzerland.

when we’ve done that and everything is back in bottles principally made of the material which constitutes 90% of the earth by weight, then we can sit back in our wet little island and watch the rest of the world fight over the next big thing WATER. Can’t make glass without it and lots of it. 

Then we can watch the world starve due to the ban on the use of fossil fuels in the agro chemicals business. 

The current dogs breakfast of stupid decisions has got us where we are over centuries it’s not going to be undone in 5 minutes. I personally never understood why we suddenly got given disposable plastic bags in supermarkets. All not having them had forced us to do is actually go and buy kitchen bin liners.

Last bit now. Current medical practice CANNOT EXIST without single use plastic disposable items, nor can pharma and biotechnology firms. Answer no idea at the moment...

 

Suggestions pls

 

M

[grendel]

57 minutes ago, EastCoastIPA said:

I hope the inserts were recycled?

actually if what we think happened really did, the bin men were fed up of having to take the inset smaller bins out of the top of the wheelie bins, so we think one week they did just that, went round and dumped the recycleables in the lorry, inserts and all.

[stumpy]

2 hours ago, Malanka said:

 

Last bit now. Current medical practice CANNOT EXIST without single use plastic disposable items, nor can pharma and biotechnology firms. Answer no idea at the moment...

 

Suggestions pls

 

M

A classic example of this - I recently had to book my annual 'old gits check up' at my GP which involved,of course, presenting a urine sample. Previously this has involved a screw top plastic bottle (2 pieces of plastic) - this time I was given a pot to p*ss in and a sealable syringe with a snap-off plunger. Four pieces to dispose of - two incinerated, two in my bin. Go figure!

[Meantime]

Here's an interesting one. Quite a few pubs in London, especially at busy times will ask you if your drinking inside, or out? If you answer out, they serve you in a plastic "glass", as opposed to a glass one. They will of course claim health and safety grounds, but none the less those plastic items end up having to be disposed off, rather than washed up. I cannot remember it particularly happening on the Broads, apart from The Kings Head Hoveton last year. The other place it regularly happens is The Sheringham beer festival. On arrival you can buy a special limited edition glass and then keep re using the same glass over the course of the day and then either take it home with you, or return it for a full refund. Your other option is to skip the glass and just keep accepting the plastic receptacle every time you go to the bar.

Perhaps this is a case where the government could take action. Ban the use of one use plastic "glasses" at pubs, beer festivals, music festivals etc. If there is a health and safety risk, then the seller should be made to "police" the health and safety risk with the use of appropriate security to ensure glasses are not thrown around, left scattered around the ground and are collected in a very timely manner to be washed.

[Chelsea14Ian]

At this years boat race, they issued re useable plastic glasses.However one of the sponsors , a mineral company.Were giving away bottled water.Of course many of the bottles landed up every where.

[Cockatoo]

17 hours ago, Malanka said:

Over 95% of the plastic in the oceans flows there down rivers in ASIA. So let’s get all aid stopped to those nations that don’t get their houses in order with recycling plastic. Personally I would decimate the arsey farty world of plastic bottled water straight away. use up all the land fill in this country before we go using anyone else’s, there’s only 1000 years worth to go so let’s get started. We should only landfill what we can’t incinerate as they do in Sweden and in Switzerland.

when we’ve done that and everything is back in bottles principally made of the material which constitutes 90% of the earth by weight, then we can sit back in our wet little island and watch the rest of the world fight over the next big thing WATER. Can’t make glass without it and lots of it. 

Then we can watch the world starve due to the ban on the use of fossil fuels in the agro chemicals business. 

The current dogs breakfast of stupid decisions has got us where we are over centuries it’s not going to be undone in 5 minutes. I personally never understood why we suddenly got given disposable plastic bags in supermarkets. All not having them had forced us to do is actually go and buy kitchen bin liners.

Last bit now. Current medical practice CANNOT EXIST without single use plastic disposable items, nor can pharma and biotechnology firms. Answer no idea at the moment...

 

Suggestions pls

 

M

All the aid money could be used to clear up stuff like this

 

Not so sure about pharma though. My tablets come in sealed envelopes on a roll, one for morning, evening etc. These envelopes look like plastic but are cellulose and biodegradable.

 

[MauriceMynah]

'Orrible I agree, BUT is it globally speaking, dangerous? If we recycle these plastics, does that recycling create the climate changing by-products we are all so worried about?

In short, does solving one problem exacerbate another? 

[Malanka]

John.

 

P,P,P,P,P,P.

 

Everything in this thread is possible, just like the Green Party manifesto it’s all possible. Problem is society has got used to where we are. e.g. I remember as a child chicken was a luxury dish to be savored and then made into soup and stock (which we still do) but nowadays some folks eat the breasts and buck the rest. Everything has become a commodity and traded and developed so as to reduce costs. Without throwing entire countries economies into a downward spiral that would make 2008 look like a minor blip we tinker too much at our peril. Too late is not the time to find out. When I was under ten there was no such thing as a plastic straw, or a prefilled syringe for vaccinations. Cans were for motor oil and if it wasn’t in a bottle you couldn’t have it. Meat came wrapped in brown paper, no plastic bags of any sort. I would happily return to those days but whole generations don’t have the culinary skill to do without their ready meals. 

In those days 3% of my cohort nationally went to university, now its 30 and the standards are the same.... agggggghhhhh

 

on that one I call BS. In buckets  

[TheQ]

Here's one for the climate change enthusiasts,

the CO2 and Temperature chart for the last half million years..

I think we are due an Ice age.....