Unintended consequences (continued)

[bungeejumper]

Nice to see that Sainsburys have stopped supplying the freebie transparent plastic bags that customers have hitherto used when they're shopping for loose fruit and veg. From now on, they want you to pay 30p for a plastic net bag that you can use and then take it home to re-use the next time that you come in.

The world will doubtless be a cleaner, greener place. Well, fairly doubtlessly. "What's this, then?", the woman in front of me yelled at the assistant. "You're telling me that I've got to give you 30p up front for the privilege of letting you sell things to me? That's 30p for a separate bag for every item I buy? And you think I'm going to come in next week and put peaches in the sme bag that I've just used for brussels sprouts?"

Sure enough, the checkouts suggest that she's not alone in feeling that way, because it seems people are simply grabbing fistfuls of veg and dumping them straight into their trolleys, sans wrapping. This morning the conveyor belts at the tills were liberally scattered with loose fruit and veg debris - earth from spuds, onion skins, pulped bits of tomato, loose cabbage leaves, escaped sprouts, you name it. The sticky gunge had got into the mechanism of my till and was clearly driving the cashier nuts. Or, indeed, mashed courgettes. Somebody hasn't thought this through....

BJ

[UncleEbenezer]

it seems people are simply grabbing fistfuls of veg and dumping them straight into their trolleys, sans wrapping.
BJ

Heh. Some of us have been doing that for as long as I can remember.

Though to be fair, some fruit&veg are better-suited to it than others. Apples or spuds, no problem; grapes or mushrooms benefit from a bag.

And yes, I'll re-use food containers of various kinds. Perhaps this might nudge people into using alternatives to bags - like tubs or jars, ideal for the deli counter - that can be put through the dishwasher to extend their life?

[swill453]

And yes, I'll re-use food containers of various kinds. Perhaps this might nudge people into using alternatives to bags - like tubs or jars, ideal for the deli counter - that can be put through the dishwasher to extend their life?

How does the checkout weighing machine cope with this?

(Assuming fruit and veg, not the deli counter).

Scott.

[bungeejumper]

More hot news on the retail front: My local B&Q superstore has abolished all of its self-checkout tills, and it has gone back to having real people doing the cashing-up stuff. Part of a national strategy, apparently.

So I bought four 40 kg bags of sand, and a fence panel that didn't have a bar code on it, and a couple of bricks (ditto), and a couple of split bags of ballast at a reduced price, and a few packets of seeds that would normally give me an automatic bagging-area complaint because they don't weigh enough to persuade the checkout that I'd put them on the bloody scales. It took just seconds when an actual human being was in charge of the proceedings.

None of this bending down, grobulating around under the wrinkled edge of something to find the barcode, or working out which of the three available hand scanners would be required to checkout each item. Nor did I have to tell the till which sort of payment card I wanted to use - I just handed it to the friendly cashier, and she did all that for me!

I tell you, this idea might just catch on.

BJ

[Bminusrob]

Anybody remember paper bags? Nah. They'll never catch on. Transparently obvious.

[UncleIan]

Anybody remember paper bags? Nah. They'll never catch on. Transparently obvious.

But didn't we move away from paper bags because we were chopping down all the trees and trees are good things?

[Watis]

Anybody remember paper bags? Nah. They'll never catch on. Transparently obvious.

But didn't we move away from paper bags because we were chopping down all the trees and trees are good things?

We can grow replacement trees in a generation.

We can't replace oil . . .

Watis

[richfool]

Anybody remember paper bags? Nah. They'll never catch on. Transparently obvious.

But didn't we move away from paper bags because we were chopping down all the trees and trees are good things?

We can grow replacement trees in a generation.

We can't replace oil . . .

Watis

And we can recycle paper.

I certainly remember paper bags, though I'm not sure they were transparent!! (joke)

[anon155742]

Paper is also our most advanced carbon capture technology

[UncleEbenezer]

Paper is also our most advanced carbon capture technology

But much shorter-term storage before it's re-released than wood. Let alone soil, or fossils.

[swill453]

Also I guess used paper bags might be deemed contaminated (depending on what was in it) therefore unrecyclable.

Scott.

[bungeejumper]

Also I guess used paper bags might be deemed contaminated (depending on what was in it) therefore unrecyclable.

LOL, I chuck paper bags, cardboard boxes, old pairs of jeans, bits of old wool carpet, and the T shirts I use for grotty jobs onto our compost heap, and we haven't been poisoned yet. I do draw the line at printer paper, which is usually chemically bleached (and can allegedly release dioxin), but everything else goes into the bio-reactor. (=Compost.) Sorry, world.

BJ

[sg31]

I always put shredded paper in the compost. Sometimes it has printer paper in it, maybe 10-15% on average. Is that a problem?

[bungeejumper]

I always put shredded paper in the compost. Sometimes it has printer paper in it, maybe 10-15% on average. Is that a problem?

I may be out of date, but the last time I looked, paper manufacturers had a European target for reducing/eliminating chlorine bleaches, but the only place they were achieving them was in Scandinavia. Will have to have another look some time.

BJ

[UncleEbenezer]

I always put shredded paper in the compost. Sometimes it has printer paper in it, maybe 10-15% on average. Is that a problem?

Have you checked your local recycling?

Haven't disposed of shreddies since my house move, but where I used to live they accepted it for recycling. I kept a stock of large envelopes received and cardboard boxes from shopping to stuff shredded paper into for them.

Comment not aimed at you, but at folks who don't put it to such productive use!

[sg31]

I go through my filing cabinet annually to clear out redundant papers and old tax year stuff. It takes a while but I can fill 6 -10 black bin bags with shreddings. The local tip don't accept them, I've no facility for burning them so the compost was the easy answer.

I raely send parcels that need padding (good idea by the way). I'm open to suggestions because I've still got 3 bags of shreddings from this years clear out sat in a cupboard in the garden.

[richfool]

The "How to Recycle ..." booklet from our local authority says, Shredded Paper (small quantities) can go in the recycling bin, but it doesn't say where Shredded paper - larger quantities - should go, nor if the shredded paper should be loose or in bags.

[bungeejumper]

The "How to Recycle ..." booklet from our local authority says, Shredded Paper (small quantities) can go in the recycling bin, but it doesn't say where Shredded paper - larger quantities - should go, nor if the shredded paper should be loose or in bags.

Okay, there are two issues here. Is printer paper fit for compost, as distinct from the recycling bin? And secondly, do local authorities accept shreddies?

My local authority won't accept loose shreddies at all - the reason, apparently, is that they blow about in the wind and create a lot of mess in the street. I'm allowed to do it if I put my shreddies into a big bag. But only if it's a paper bag made of unbleached paper.

So let me see, they're happy for me to put chlorine-bleached paper into the recycling, but they insist that the bag I put it into should comply with squeaky-clean Greenpeace standards. The logic is impeccable.

Cover-up!!!!!!

BJ

[ReformedCharacter]

[
Okay, there are two issues here. Is printer paper fit for compost, as distinct from the recycling bin?
BJ

I would compost it without worry, it should make good compost:

https://www.planetnatural.com/composting-paper/

RC