Seriously... 'Single Use Plastics' - Is it really even worth trying?
 

Needed to go to my vape store today for a re-up. Last time they gave me a little plastic bag to carry my juices home in...

So, knowing I'm going there today, I slip the little bag in my pocket to re-use it, feeling I'm 'doing my bit' against single use plastics etc...

When I get home my Amazon order has arrived - 4 large boxes (Would have fitted in 2) and so much extra plastic bubble fill to use up the free space you wouldn't believe. It's just taken mre half an hour to get the air out of these bits of plastic and roll them up neatly, just so I can throw them away... Bloody tonnes of the stuff!

And I thought I was 'helping' by reusing my bag... I dunno, SMFH... Why bother?

Hi CS,

Yes, you should still bother. Every little bit helps. You could also send an email to Amazon asking them what their future plans are to replace plastic in shipping with other materials such as compostable plastic (made from veggies or something) or cardboard.

A couple of months ago, some grocery story dropped 100% of the plastic they use. Not just in plastic bags, but in plastic wrap too. I brought it up to a store manager near me about 2 weeks ago and he said that a lot of people are complaining now, so who knows? Maybe if enough people care, things can change.

One problem I have is that I keep forgetting to bring bags to the grocery store for re use. Must stop.

Feel like we are going back 25 + years ago with all the recycling talk :1orglaugh

Grocery plastic bag : as far i can remember Grocery bags was Paper made at steinberg and Metro back then :2 cents:
http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/media/ed...7411551164.jpg

Milk Plastic jug and bags : Will be replace by Glass jugs, exactly how it was way back then :1orglaugh
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/i/16331...-1/s-l1000.jpg

Count yourself lucky, here in the States you are lucky to get any bubble packing . Usually everything is chucked into one box (Usually 6 times larger than the size required) and by the time i receive it much of the contents are damaged !!!:thumbsup:thumbsup

No, don't bother.

Don't buy off Amazon anymore. Simple solution that if more people adopted, mega corporations like Amazon, Youtube, Facebook etc would change their ways and change.

TBH, I don't think that I will bother anymore - My token little gestures won't make the slightest difference in the overall scheme of things, with companies like Amazon (Not just amazon) almost going out of their way to use as much fucking plastic as possible on a single delivery...

Mark says contact them and tell them, but they already know. An email from CS off of GFY will make ZERO difference to their practices. Likewise, Paul says don't use them anymore, but I am only one person, and if I didn't use them, it again wouldn't make even the slightest difference to the amount that they use...

Which leads me to believe that if they are going to continue doing this - and I'm quite sure that they are - Then me reusing a single plastic bag wont make ANY DIFFERENCE Whatsoever in the overall scheme of things, so I won't bother again in the future.

At least Amazon uses recyclable materials instead of styrofoam packing peanuts when shipping merchandise

Not true. I ordered an LCD screen for my phone. It came in a plastic envelope.
Inside the plastic envelope there was a large Styrofoam box perhaps 10x larger than the item.
Inside the Styrofoam box was bubble wrap. Inside the bubbler wrap was a cardboard box. Inside the cardboard box was more bubble wrap and finally after all that was my screen in a small bubble wrap sleeve.

Some Context...
 

https://i.imgur.com/fgbd3b7.jpg

Little bag I bothered to take back to the store and re-use. (TV Remote included for size reference...

https://i.imgur.com/3oavYPB.jpg

Not all, but just under HALF of the crap I am still going to have to throw away... Tightly rolled up to conserve space in the bin... Yet bin is full, hence it being stored on washing machine! Complete fucking overkill for packaging.

Yes, it says on it '100% Reusable' but reusable for what? Wiping my fucking ass on?

Reusable or not, it's still 100% useless to me, and still ends up in the bin...

Thats not how amazon packs your merchandise, but rather the manufacturer.

You cant recycle most plastic bags in the traditional sense of curbside pickup. Supermarkets and stores out here have special bins to drop them in.

Many little things can have cumulative big effects.

Use reusable shopping bags - where I do most of my grocery shopping you get a $0.10 discount for each one that you bring in. And most stores have a recycle bin for plastic bags - I typically include packaging materials with the bags when I deposit them.

If you use a Kourig (cat is loving on my hands as I try to type) some brands just have a plastic ring at top with a mesh bottom eliminating what I estimate to be at least 80% of the plastic that would end up in a landfill.

Doing a little is still better than doing nothing.

That would be OK if that were the case over here, but its not. They don't have that. All BS aside, if there was a place I could take it then I probably would, but there isn't - So it's just gotta go in the bin. Hence why I say my tiny effort in reusing a bag is pointless.

If Amazon have used the same amount with everyone who has ordered in my area today, then I could reuse my bag till the day I drop dead, and it still wouldn't offset a even a single day of just amazons waste - Let alone other companies doing just the same...

Suppose we were talking about helping the homeless instead of the planet. I say to you to give just a penny a day to the homeless. Save it up in a jar, and then once a year, take the jar to a homeless charity and give them the 365 pennies... Well there's not much they can really do with 365 pennies, but you are doing 'a little' yeah? Better than doing nothing...

Yet, after the first week, you realize that I have decided to give £1000.00 per day, to try and make more people homeless. The exact opposite of what you are trying to do.

So at the end of the year, I'll be giving three hundred and sixty five thousand pounds to an organization that MAKES people homeless.

Your pennies feel pretty pointless now dont they? And thats how Im feeling. It doesn't matter if I do a little or a lot. The numbers working against me making even the slightest difference are not just large - They are unrealistically astronomical...

Earlier today my wife was buyin' a pack of smokes and the girl at the counter put them in a plastic bag. My wife said she didn't need the bag, but the girl insisted because their store policy when selling cigs is they HAVE TO put them in a bag to conceal from minors (kids).

Fuckin' retarded.

Exactly. It's ridiculous. Once the powers that be bring the businesses into line, from mom and pop store right up to Amazon, THEN I will worry about reusing a bag.:2 cents: