Too costly to be green?
Supermarkets should pay towards the cost of recycling their food packaging, according to the body which represents English and Welsh councils.
The Local Government Association says 40% of food packaging has to be sent to landfill, and that figure's hardly changed over the last twelve years. But when times are hard, is cutting down on packaging really your priority when you go to the supermarket? The price councils get for your old cans, bottles and newspapers has collapsed. Is it really worth anyone's while to recycle?
Nicky's talking about this on the phone-in this morning. Sales of organic food have plummeted, and with the manufacturers struggling, it's a great time to buy a new car. Can we ever be green in a recession? On the other hand, maybe you've turned the heating down to cut fuel bills, and never leave the TV on standby any more. In the light of the economic situation, has the climate changed?
Jump to more content from this blog
About this blog
Subscribe to 5 live Breakfast
You can stay up to date with 5 live Breakfast via these feeds.
5 live Breakfast Feed(ATOM)
If you aren't sure what RSS is you'll find our beginner's guide to RSS useful.
Podcast
5LNPI: Greatest Sporting Achievement of the Decade
09:00 Fri, 1 Jan 10
You've been choosing between Sir Steve Redgrave, Lance Armstrong, Roger Federer and the England Rugby team. Russell Fuller finds out who you think deserves the title.
Download or subscribe to this programme's podcast
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~32~RS~)
Comments
Sign in or register to comment.
I think a recession is the best time to go green. If anything we've saved money by changing to a more eco friendly lifestyle. Our household appliances use less energy, energy saving lightbulbs in every room. Heating is only on when we need it and never goes above 20C.
I use reusable nappies for my daughter - given disposable ones cost £10 for 30 you make a HUGE saving!
All our fruit, veg and meat is sourced locally through organic companies. Not only does the food taste much better than the bland cardboard food that you get in the supermarket, they also have not flown in from Argentina or Mexico which reduces our carbon footprint.
As for packaging... my vegetables come in a cardboard box which goes back to the company the following week to get filled with more lovely UK veg. Doesn't take much to go green, and it definately saves us a considerable amount of money so is most welcome in hard times like these!
Complain about this comment
In the discussion abour recycling it was claimed that recycling was bound to be different for 'geographical' reasons. This leads you to think, "ah yes, of course the north of Scotland is likely to be diferent from London.". However, we live, in Mid-Devon, within 10 miles of East Devon, Exeter and Teignbridge. In each of these 4 authorities, what you can put out for recycling is different, and also what kind of containers/boxes you put it in.
Complain about this comment
Yesterday in the morning I read two newspaper articles focussing on the environment; the first discussed what happens to plastic bags (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2008/feb/29/plasticbags.waste?picture=332762622)
and showed awful pictures from around the globe of the environmental impact of disguarded plastic bags, the second article ( http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2009/feb/05/global-drought?picture=342842970 ) looked at the impact of drought around the globe due to global warming and rising temperatures. After this, I tackled the enormous task of taking our recycling to the local dump as due to snow and a lack of salt spreading, our plastic bottles had not been collected. So off I go with two black bags of plastic packaging, one of plastic bottles and a variety of textiles and oddities to recycle. I was shocked to discover that plastic packaging is no longer being recylced (since Dec 08) due to the expense of it going to China and the falling UK economy making it unprofitable. It shouldn't be about profit. When I was growing up, we used to collect bottles to get the deposit to buy sweets with. Why can't packaging be biodegradeable/compostable or recyclable. All the supermarkets have made excessive profits in the last financial year. Most of Sainsburys 'Taste the difference' food is in packaging that cannot be recycled. It is time that EVERYONE was held responsible and products that cannot be recycled are banned using legislation. We may be slightly inconvenienced by irratic weather conditions (I'm a school teacher who couldn't get to my school 20 miles away during the recent snow), but we need to consider what is happening across the globe with crops failing and water disappearing and the impact this is having on others. Unfortunately, it seems that most people don't care until it affects them directly and even then just complain and expect something to be done by the government. I don't believe the post of Prime Minister comes with a magic wand, but I do believe that more legislation is needed in this selfish society to force change.
Complain about this comment
Whilst I agree with "feistysweetface" that the main motivation to recycle should not be driven by profit alone, it's vital that it should be acheived at reasonable cost.
The local ratepayers and businesses have to pay an increasing amount to landfill this material if plastics, including packaging, are not recycled.
Plastics can be recycled! The technology is available, but needs investment.
Domestic markets need to be created: where these materials can be cost-effectively turned into new products, creating jobs at the same time.
There are pilot schemes now operating, many using Government Grants, that "close the loop" and enable these plastics to be reused several times over.
For example, mixed plastic packaging from supermarkets can be recycled into distribution pallets that replace wooden ones.
A UK company is already manufacturing a high quality wet room shower tray that is manufactured from over 95% plastics from recycled TV's and PC's.
It's only when we convert these recycled materials into products that people want to buy, will recycling become economically viable as well as environmentally sustainable.
Complain about this comment
View these comments in RSS