To save the Environment, do you save all your used packages?

Question

When you shop and you have finished using the goods in the package that you have purchased, do you re-use it for other purposes, instead of throwing it in the garbage and create more waste. Example a package of crisp can be used to carry snacks to work or school, freeze something in the freezer, etc

All you have to do is turn it inside out and rinse it and let it dry and re-use it or other purposes. You will save a lot on cling film and you are also saving the environment.

A bag of sugar when empty can be turned inside out and used as a lunch bag. etc etc.

Answer 1

No. For one thing, this sort of tokenistic recycling will make no difference at all. As long as South America is strip clearing the rain forest to grow bio fuels, as long as china is building dozens of coal power stations a year, and so on, me reusing a crisp packet will not have any effect!

For another thing, I disagree with the onus being placed on the consumer. The manufacturers should consider the impact of their packaging, at source.

Answer 2

I usually grind up my plastic and throw it out my window on my way to work.  

No seriously you shouldn't reuse that plastic, because it breaks down and releases toxins into your food.

Answer 3

I new a guy who used to recycle the tinfoil that he brought his

lunch to work in,I don't know how many times he used the same

bit of foil,But he owned the place and has millions.I don't know

what he did with the rest of his garbage but knowing him he would have some use for it.I will pass on all of your tips.What do you do with all of your used Q tips?I would like to know.I take the cotton wool of and put it in the fire and then re-rap some more cotton wool round the piece of wood and that helps save a tree or two. Now why don't we take a tip from the Asians,cause they don't use toilet paper to wash after going to the toilet (comfort room they call it,more polite don't you think)Well they just use water and their hand,but then you could say their using up to much water to do that.If all the Asians stopped using water to wash their you know what  and were like us and used toilet paper,and not their hands how would we benefit?Now if you used the same container day in and day out what happens to all the other containers that you have not used.There must come a time when they have to be thrown out.The only answer is that everything that is contained in something must be able to be boiled and eaten.So we have containers for lunch one day.A tasty snack between meals  boiled and rapped for a Sunday pick nick,or a day at the beach Where I live people make a living scavenging at the local dump that is how they make  money. no garbage,no food, this is in Asia, the Western World just throw it out and the garbage grows and grows.

Answer 4

To start with I avoid buying over-packaged goods in the first place - i.e. loose fruit and veg rather than things in plastic trays or bags and always I use an environmentally friendly shopping bag; otherwise known as a rucksack :0)

If I do buy goods with packaging I try to see that its either

1. compostable - made of paper, corn starch etc

2. Formally recyclable (usually can tell by the logo's) and now covers many forms of plastic as well as glass and metals.

If not I tend to change brands or buy in volume so there's less waste for the amount of goods bought.

This way you don't go batty looking for inventive things to do with the packaging.

Answer 5

I look at the packaging before I make a purchase.  I don't purchase food items in glass jars, because our area doesn't recycle glass jars; spaghetti sauce, baby food, pickles.

Any boxes, I fold up and line up in an old plastic toy container.  When it is full, I bundle them.  I reuse my water bottles, cans are recycled, and papers kept separately.

As for lunch bags, and book bags, my children each used the same one for their entire school careers.  My oldest, her bag is fifteen years old, canvas, and she now uses it to carry clothes to work or groceries home.  

We use jute bags for our groceries, rather than plastic.  

We do not buy Styrofoam.

Answer 6

It would be much more efficient to kill about 3 billion people.

Answer 7

we aren't going to save the world with a pathetic wee bit of recycling - get a grip.

Answer 8

I usually throw it out, as my local council will not pick up my recycle bin.  Weve been in this house 7 months and not once has the bin been emptied, and we are too far away from a recycle point.  Im now wonder why I pay so much council tax when the coucil dont fulfil their end of the bargain!!!