Woolworths ban selling plastic straws and packaging

[imastawka]

Australia's supermarket giants have announced they will be reducing the level of plastic packaging in their stores after a huge backlash from customers.

In April almost 400,00 people signed a petition calling for Coles and Woolworths to 'Stop wrapping small portions of herbs, vegetables and fruit in plastic and Styrofoam.'

Both supermarket giants have come under fire in the last year for excessively wrapping things like bananas, apples and sweet potatoes. 

In response to the mounting concern, Woolworths have announced they will stop selling plastic straws by the end of 2018 and will remove plastic packaging from a further 80 fruit and vegetable lines. 

The change will apparently remove 134 million plastic straws from circulation each year.

'In the last year we have seen a shift towards more sustainable attitudes from our customers and the momentum is growing, with recent research showing a 15% increase in Australians now saying that taking care of the planet is important to them,' Woolworths Group CEO Brad Banducci said. 

The company has also vowed to have a food waste recycling partner at every store by the end of the year. 

More here - 

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/woolworths-ban-selling-plastic-straws-and-remove-packaging-...

[travlyn2012]

[imastawka]

Why would you be indifferent (3 times, no less) to banning plastic packaging?

I think the supermarkets use way too much and wrap things that don't need wrapping.

[brerrabbit585]

I totally agree, stawks.  When supermarkets first brought in the green bags to replace some of the plastic bags at checkout, they immediately made up for it by starting to wrap small portions of vegies in shrinkwrap on trays - and we ended up bringing home more plastic than before.  For a long time it was possible to avoid buying the shrinkwrapped ones but it's been getting harder and harder to do that.  

Gladwrap/shrinkwrap is one of the most carcinogenic things on the planet and the last thing I need is to wrap all my food in it.  It contains xeno-oestrogens - the chemicals that cause the fish to grow three heads.  As if that's not bad enough, I'm the one who has to pay to dispose of all the plastic THEY choose to use.  I only put about a cupful of rubbish in the bin most weeks and it's almost all plastic.  I put it in a neighbour's bin so that the truck doesn't have to use more fuel to stop for mine.

I've been thinking about taking my plastic back to the supermarket and tell them it's their rubbish, they can dispose of it.  

[zanadoo_56]

The drinking straws thing is interesting.  Currently (looking online) neither Coles nor Woolies sell paper drinking straws.....and no wonder.  Those things got so cheap and nasty that they unravelled before you had finished your drink.  I wonder if anyone stil makes them?  Probably in China....in which case someone will complain about that.

I might have to start stocking up with straws for my iced coffees.

[travlyn2012]

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@imastawka wrote:

Why would you be indifferent (3 times, no less) to banning plastic packaging?

I think the supermarkets use way too much and wrap things that don't need wrapping.

---

If companies are serious, they should be pursuing manufacturers to cut back on the types of packaging they are using.

Many people have and use glad wrap type plastics in their home. We all  purchase items that are in some form of plastic wrapping,  Soft drinks, milk, breads, frozen goods, confectionery, etc. and most likely a lot of the 400,000 people (or close to) that petitioned the issue to the supermarkets use all these items, which is why I am indifferent.  

The issue of plastics has been going on for a long time, yet manufacturers continue to use it, and in a lot of cases are using more than ever, and the majority of consumers keep buying products that are a plastic based.

[imastawka]

Zanadoo, paper straws are available from a number of places.

https://www.google.com.au/search?biw=1185&bih=601&tbm=shop&ei=HjIVW860I8qk0gSiwoKwCw&q=paper+straws+...

Locally, I can get them from one of those $2 shops.

If you must have plastic, then buy reusable ones complete with cleaning brushes.

https://www.google.com.au/search?biw=1185&bih=601&tbm=shop&ei=YjIVW9-IOYXo0gS4rg0&q=reusable+plastic...

Trav, a lot of companies using plastic for wrapping have made it recyclable plastic.

Not all of it I agree.  But a lot of it is.

Woolworths have had their fruit and vegie plastic bags recyclable for a long time now.

[travlyn2012]

Brerrabit made a comment about taking plastic back to the supermarket....

As you know I purchased 2 Tvs recently. At the store, I asked if I could removed them from the packaging and just take the Tvs, because of the packaging. The answer was no.  (Same thing when we bought a bed a year back, all in plastic wrapping and they refused to take the rubbish away when they delivered it)

When I unpacked the Tvs at home, there was 4 plastic bags that contained. The remote. The legs. The manual and warranty card,

and one that the power cord was wrapped in, even though it was a fixed item on the Tv. Then there was a plastic bag that the Tvs were in. If that's not enough, there was also two sheets of plastic film covering each screen.

Add to that, 4 pieces of Styrene in each box.  

Chances are you would remember when boxed items used moulded cardboard, like egg cartons as packaging.

I think that there was more plastic based packing in each Tv box  than what a thousand or more plastic straws would be.

I don't think I would have used a thousand straws in my entire life, and that would include the waxed paper straws.

I question why the EPA has not taken up this issue, as it is an environmental issue, or perhaps they consider it to be too much of a mine field to do anything about it.

Will have to sign off soon as I have to complete a document for my son. Have to get it in the post in the morning.

Good night to you Stawks (if you are still up)

[chameleon54]

Personally I much prefer to buy fruit & veg in light plastic film. Have you ever been shopping in the vegie section and seen some bogan wipe their nose on their hand then promptly fossic through the open veg looking for just the right one. ( the one without sn0t on it ....    ) or some-one who obviously has the flu coughing all over the open veg. And personally I would prefer not to eat my lunch off of that black conveyer belt thingy at every checkout that has god knows what built up on it .....GROSSE !!!

If we seriously want to reduce the amount of plastic used in packaging, lets start with the toy companies and electronics industry. Once we get them sorted lets move onto the muesli bar and confectionary companies that wrap.... t.i.n.y ....w.e.e.n.y....  little things in a bag twice as big as the bar and then pop the minute portions in A GREAT BIG, MULTI COLOURED shiny, highly processed box.......

Spoiler

Or perhaps we could all go back to growing some of our own food again !!!

[brerrabbit585]

chameleon, has it occurred to you that the person who put the vegies in the plastic wrap may have coughed all over them as they worked, or not washed their hands after they went to the toilet?  Or that some people like to urinate on their vegie crops?

I'm more concerned about the chemicals that go into the fruit & veg, both before and during packaging, which is why I'm doing my best to grow as much as I can myself.  I can't wash the chemicals out of the produce but I can wash someone's snot and other germs off it.

Oh, and we'd eliminate a LOT of plastic if we went back to eating real food, not highly processed/packaged foods.