Retiring plastic packaging (e.g. blister packs) wherever possible in favor of cardboard or other biodegradable alternatives would be a huge step in the right direction. The amount of plastic waste from basic things that don't require it is pretty ridiculous. There's no reason that a tool (for example) needs to be packaged in plastic. It doesn't even need packaging in the first place in most cases.
this post was submitted on 16 Feb 2025
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Sometime in the past year or so I started wondering aloud about the amount of paper and plastic packaging that was thrown into bins by the checkout in my local supermarket. Pretty much any outer wrapper or carton that would have an inner sealed bag/box.
I genuinely didn't understand what was going on, as I never saw other customers unpack and discard all this. A kind mastodon user then told me about a movement to put the burden of excessive packaging back on the shop rather than consumers:
By unpacking double packaged goods and discarding the outer box/wrapper in the supermarket's bins, these shoppers make visible to the staff and (ideally) owner that this is superfluous and unwanted materials, and BTW you get to throw it out now.
I haven't managed to track down any other information about this sort of everyday activism, but I think it's an appealing way to protest the amount of waste going into our homes on a daily basis.
This is actually common in Germany. After you pay for your groceries at the checkout, there are bins for paper/cardboard and other packaging. Many people will unpack their food before taking it home.
I don’t do it because I want to read what is on the packaging, but I have definitely see some unpack a frozen pizza out of the box and just take it in the plastic wrapping.
Imagine if you could go to the store with reusable containers and fill them up with foodstuffs. I eat a lot of beans, I could just fill up a bunch of sacks or cannisters at a dispensary rather than buy all these cans and bags. Need soap? Just go to the soap dispensary and fill up a jug. Etc. Etc.
For sure! However these are conscious choices that informed consumers can make. What I'd love to see is a world where an uninformed consumer can choose default products that have no impact on the environment because the government has made it so. No additional effort is required on the part of the consumer.
Want foodstuffs? Those are purchasable by weight and if you need a container they're cardboard or glass. Want soap? The store stocks bars of it or liquid by weight.
I did not mean to imply that consumers should have a choice. They can go to the refillable bean dispensary and they'll like it.
I'm imagining this rather often.🥹 Going to the store with our reusable containers and filling them with what we need (~ideally in a moneyless society)
There was a shop like this at the last town I lived in. I'd always leave with an absurd volume of things for the amount of money I spent.
There used to be a few shops like this in Norway! Came to my town after I moved to Denmark, but I think they went bankrupt. At least, the shop is not in my old hometown anymore.