Hi all My two pet peeves of supermarkets are the non recyclable styrofoam meat trays and yoghurt pottles. I have saved them for use in the garden but they still pile up and eventually still have to be thrown out. Any good way of avoiding this? I am going to switch to making my own yoghurt but don't know how to avoid meat trays. Will butchers at the supermarket pack meat in my own containers? Is there any way of lobbying supermarkets to cut out styrofoam meat trays and use something else that can be composted? All ideas welcome cheers :)
Submitted by anivre on 17 November 2008 09:47:07
Comments
Hi anivre - I agree about all that extra packaging - as much as you try, you never seem to use it all up!
I don't eat meat so I don't have to contend with the meat packs, although often the only decent mushrooms I can find are packed on plastic trays with cling film over the top. My local council (Auckland City) now recycles the plastic trays. They still won't accept polystyrene. Perhaps you could suggest plastic trays as an alternative to your supermarket?
It might also be worth contacting the potatopak people to see if their products are suitable. They can be found at: http://www.potatoplates.com/product-range.htm
There is also the obvious option of suggesting you buy your meat from a butcher. Do butchers still wrap everything in newsprint paper like they did in the old days?
Unfortunately I'm pretty sure supermarkets will not pack meat into your own containers. The main reason is one of hygiene - they cannot guarantee that your container is totally clean so they might contaminate their own equipment as well as being blamed if you fall ill. Until very recently it was hard to find a coffee shop that would allow people to bring their own coffee cups for exactly the same reason.
(I remember taking my own cup to a cafe a few years ago and they insisted on making the coffee in their own polystyrene cup, pouring it into my cup, then throwing away the poly cup they had just used! Rather defeated the purpose!)
Submitted by Lindis on 17 November 2008 13:41:51
Boy that really defeats the purpose indeed. *sigh*
I'm in Dunedin and I don't think our council recycling accepts those mushroom trays. They used to join my stack of plant pot "saucers".. though now I just take my reused produce bags for bagging loose produce. Would be good though if they would recycle them and the supermarket would use that to package meat instead of styrofoam.
I don't know of any local butchers but will look around. There might still be one sensible enough to listen to reason instead of submitting to policy..
Otherwise we could get our own chickens but I don't think we'll be getting a cow anytime soon and even if we did I wouldn't want to kill it!
Submitted by anivre on 20 November 2008 16:43:09
"... I don't think we'll be getting a cow anytime soon and even if we did I wouldn't want to kill it!"
That would be one big neighbourhood BBQ!
Submitted by Lindis on 23 November 2008 22:09:04