Penalised for producing rubbish??

Question

Why should I have to pay to dispose of my supermarket packaging. Surely the supermarkets should be putting less packaging on their food. I can't help it if the thing I buy has wrapping on it so why doesn't the government put pressure on the very root of the problem instead of always blaming the individual at the end of the supply chain.

If you try buying something without unnessecary packaging you can't really buy anything at all.

What are your views??. No dumb answers please. I want real opinions with reason behind them.

Answer 1

supermarkets go over the top with food packaging now but i aint bothered cuz i aint the one who has to pay for it lol

Answer 2

leave the unnecessary packaging at the checkout? might take a bit of time, people in the queue might get angry or join in. chaos either way he he

Answer 3

Oh absolutely.Supermarkets put WAY to much packaging on their products, and that goes without saying. Sadly not all of it is needed, but for some reason they just dont want to give up - Its very sad. Its also sad how we as the tax payer pay so much money and get shoddy service in return.

Answer 4

YOU make the choice to buy it in the first place.  If you think they are including too much packaging then buy it someplace else.

If you want to "penalize" them, how would you propose to do it?  You don't suppose they would pass this "penalty" on to you, the consumer, do you?

Answer 5

what is the excess packaging I buy a steak it is wrapped once in cello wrap and sits on a Styrofoam tray.the wrap is nothing and the foam tray is recyclable were I live.My taxes allow me 1 garbage bag per week for our house hold of 4 people,at present we put out about 1/2 bag per week (I don't think that's to bad)So how are YOU being penalized do you pay for your rubbish removal by the pound.Face it you will always have packaging soup in a can, cereal in a box,tissues in a box,meat wrapped in cello and Styrofoam tray.Their are lots more things in life to worry about get on with it.

Answer 6

You are entitled to remove any excess packaging and leave it in the shop. The supermarkets would soon change there attitude if they where responsible for its disposal. Also you can report excess packaging to the department for the environment.

Check out this article.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2006/...

Answer 7

I'm not so sure it's the supermarket's fault. The companies that make the food products sold in the stores are more responsible for the excess packaging than the stores.

Yes a lot of consumer goods are sold with an excess of packaging.  Places like McDonalds are to blame too.  Why does a big Mac, or whatever,

have to be served in a carboard box, when a simple wrapper would suffice, for example.

I'm lucky enough to live in California, so when I get an urge for junk food, I go to In &Out Burgers, who use way less packaging.  They also use only locally grown beef that is fresh, with no growth hormones, fresh potatoes that they slice and dice on the premises.  Nothing they serve has been frozen.  And the burgers taste like a real hamburgers.  Their menu is very simple, just burgers and fries, sodas and real milkshakes.  There's a Mcdonalds a few blocks from the In & Out, that I go to.  At lunch time, there might be 20 people at the McDonalds and 150 at the In & Out.

It wouldn't be so bad if we used other sources for making paper, like hemp.  Also bioplastics, which are relatively new, have the potential to replace over half the plastics we now make out of petroleum.  In fact, I believe bioplastics is a much better use of plant material than biofuel.  These new bioplastics can be compostable, and some will decompose even in lakes and oceans with no harm done.   We currently use 5-10% of our oil to make plastics, much of which is immediately thrown away.  And is not biodegradable.  And most plastics aren't even recyclable.

If the paper packaging was made of recycled materials it would be better.  Some is.