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It's Plastic Free July and  "Hawaii: Message in the Waves" was made nearly 15 years ago

How far have we got?It is no longer unusual to Take Your Own Bag Shopping.  Some of us no longer forget to do so (or only very very rarely).  It is still a problem though even though single use bags now have to be paid for.The pandemic has meant that even more plastic packaging seems to have arrived around produce.  It makes it quicker to grab and go with our shopping but plastic actually retains the virus longer than other surfaces and we should wash our produce before eating it anyway.Many countries no longer want to take our waste plastic for processing.  Together with the USA we are the worst for plastic packaging/single use plastic. When we discourage it here it seems it just encourages marketers to use it in countries who have worse facilities than we have to deal with it.There has been a lot of lobbying by a pro-plastics lobby.We don't need it on lots of things and should find and use better and less damaging to the environment and to us alternatives.https://topdocumentaryfilms.com/hawaii-message-waves/#comments

Philippa Bond ● 1526d2 Comments

You can complain and you can name and shame when it is excessive.You can send the offending packaging back to the company that it came from.Every so often a newspaper or website or TV or radio station will ask for photos of the ridiculously excessive packaging received - eg the roll of bubble wrap wrapped up again and the enormous boxes with just a packet of paperclips or staples in them. I heard that there was a shortage of cardboard recently because a well known online delivery company had bought it all up.  Please complain, please recycle and buy local if you can.  By not doing anything you are tacitly agreeing with the situation - as the excuse will be that no-one complained!

Philippa Bond ● 1523d

Not very well at all sadly. It is getting worse and each pack of lateral flow tests generates 59 pieces of waste, 56 of which are plastic. Sometimes, such waste is unavoidable but we have to do much more. The problem is that with the massive rise in online shopping you have virtually no control over the packaging.

N V Brooks ● 1525d