Food, packaging, electronic waste, plastic: mankind is trashing itself. With focus on "life in throwaway mode" We follow routes of waste, show what he does with humans and animals and how to avoid m better.
A typical weekly shopping in Germany: With a shopping list in your head and a carrying bag in your hand, I make my way to supermarket. When entering business, I immediately welcome family of polymers with ir difficult to ineffable additional names – polyethylene in vegetable department, polystyrene in cooling rack, terephthalate, short pet, in beverage department. With ir colourful and shiny buy-me packaging, y are hard to resist. So Paprikamix ends up in plastic case, smoothie in plastic bottle and cheese behind transparent foil in my shopping basket, which, incidentally, also consists of hard plastic. Packaging is practical – for marketing, to make products look irresistible. They suggest freshness and cleanliness and promise long shelf life. Moreover, as an unpractised cook, I could have cooked pasta without useful Garzeitangaben on box, perhaps far beyond al dente. Packaging makes our lives a lot easier. So I can also rely on supermarket having a bag – after all no more free – for me if my own bag of imaginary shopping list, refore, susceptible to marketing campaigns alone can not withstand.
Margarita SchmidtSocial media manager, lives in Düsseldorf area. Since she tried to reduce packaging waste of family, re is no more coffee to go on way to office.
After supermarket visit, it's time to unpack, with many products being removed from ir shells. The packaging waste is more voluminous than actual purchase, which is also reality. In comparison with EU, Germany has been producing most packaging waste for many years. In year 2016, it was 18.16 tonnes, i.e. 0.05 percent more than in previous year, as federal Environmental Agency has shared. Every consumer, every user, causes almost 25 kilograms of plastic packaging waste a year.
Looking into my own household nothing surprises me any more: milk in beverage carton, cereal in transparent plastic bag and chocolate in aluminium envelope, n still paper drum around, much is double packed. The yellow ton is constantly swelling with us, discussion about who has to bring out rubbish again, often returns. Isn't that different? I would like to go shopping for our family of three, for a sample. Maybe that saves us a whole lot, and not just rubbish?
It's all about breaking out of everyday inertia. Antje Orentat, co-founder of Citizens ' initiative bag-cool-tBefore you start, I have to change: The Tanya is supposed to be a strategist. I'm going to create a solid list of all errands on which dairy products, dry goods, green stuff and sweets are not to be missed. Paradoxically, I find that for my errands without packaging, I need one thing above all – packaging. They should be sustainable in any case and not for ton. For each product, suitable cans, bags and cans have to be drawn. The result: Instead of a light shopping bag, I drag a backpack full of klappernder container with me around. Instead of comfortably shopping in a supermarket, I go on a sort of scavenger hunt for many different products. If you want to buy something quickly after work, you can hardly be consistent. Unless he drags containers around all day, but who wouldn't wrestle with his convenience?
The local farmer's market seems to me most promising, so I start re. The question of wher I can put something in my can, still comes to me on market stand timidly over lips. I fear to be dismissed in market as a cross. But meat seller puts even raw beef into my brought tin. "We can't just take container over counter," she tells me.
That has started quite encouragingly. At many or stands I am even praised for so much environmental awareness, of or customers and also of sellers, also at my last station on weekly market: vegetable trader. Who doesn't know broccoli in its shiny plastic hood? From my supermarket tours I am accustomed to this sight. On market I have to do it as expected without plastic, but it costs twice as much as in supermarket.
Date Of Update: 20 August 2018, 12:00
