Fruit and Veg!

The fruit bowl is running empty and we’ve been freezer-raiding for veg in our house the last couple of days. Time to tackle plastic cocooned fruit and veg.

I’ve noticed from the weekly BIG shop that when I get home, there are an awful lot of non-recyclable plastic wrappers that go in the bin, mainly from fruit and veg packaging – bags of apples, potatoes, etc. In the past I’ve grabbed the bagged stuff either because its supermarket sweep time with the offspring in tow, or the wrapped stuff gives better value for money. For example, peppers 3 peppers in a plastic sleeve on offer at £1 are cheaper than buying 2 at 55p each.

So why all the plastic?

Is it something supermarkets have to do? Well, the only legislation I could find was a tad impenetrable, but seemed to be more to do with the type to materials that can be used in contact with food, rather than what packaging must be used. So, the supermarkets must see some benefit in wrapping everything up in plastic packaging to spend cash on it in the first place. It may be in part due to cost of materials and showcasing food to its best advantage so it sells, but there are probably other advantages. Cue a trip to some “plastic is fantastic because its our livelihood” websites.

As I love an infographic, below is a little of summary I cooked up on the benefits of plastic packaging:

There’s an argument that packaging, plastic or otherwise, helps us to reduce energy in the long run. Less waste means a better return on the energy invested in growing, processing and transporting food to consumers. To put it in context, around 68% of the average embedded energy in the food consumed by the average EU citizen (that includes us, for now…) is dedicated to agriculture, processing and transport (16695 MJ), compared to 10% to packaging. Presumably that 10% keeps that 16695 MJ from being higher.

Source: JRC Science and Policy Report, Energy use in the EU food sector: State of play and opportunities for improvement, 2015

Pondering these benefits, I caught myself wondering – if using plastic means lower transport costs (better for CO2 emissions) and food is more likely to get to the shop in a good state for sale, then is it really a bad thing? Well, the thing is, in 2016 only 45% of overall plastic packaging waste in the UK was recycled, resulting in 1.2 million tonnes that wasn’t.

Source: Defra, Digest of Waste and Resource Statistics 2018, May 2018

Obviously, this is for all packaging, not just food packaging, but from looking at the range of recycling symbols on food packaging in my local, it’s probably reflective of the mix of plastics used for food packaging. That’s an awful lot of raw material and energy being used once to get food to consumers. And with a bit of research and know-how, there are ways to develop alternatives to non-recyclable plastic packaging. But for the time being, as these things tend to be led by consumer power to trigger change, we will try our hardest to avoid non-recyclable plastics. I’m also going to try and do a bit of research on energy and environmental impacts of all types of packaging, as it might be that recyclable plastic may in some cases be better than glass or carboard/paper.

The other thing to consider is that, even through everything is done to get the food to us in tip top condition, it doesn’t account for the huge amount of food waste that happens within households. Some numbers from WRAP show that in 2015, of the 7.1 million tonnes of food thrown away, 70% was food that could have been eaten. Fruit and veg made up 37% of that total tonnage thrown away. There’s a whole other blog just waiting to be written on reducing food waste alone!

What are we going to do now the stocks are low?

As we need fresh fruit and veg for this week, how to source without a plastic covering? There is some lose fruit and veg at the local supermarkets, some offering more of a loose selection than than others.

But we decided to go old school – the local market! I have fond memories as a kid of going to the local market at Southend football stadium car park with my Nan on a Thursday. Main benefit of the trip was to get market cheese, which is cheese of superior strength to the weakling cheese offered by the supermarkets. But I digress.

I spy loose vegetables at the Friday market in Wallingford...

We are very lucky to have a market in the town centre on a Friday. A lot of the fruit and veg is loose and gets plonked into paper bags – if you even want them bagged up. I felt very smug presenting my cotton bag and having a whole load of carrots, spuds and broccoli all piled on top of one another after they’d been weighed. And here is the outcome of my trip:

There is still some plastic with market produce – when I got in our elder daughter chastised me (!) about the plastic on the grapes and cucumber. I think it’s going to be one of my missions to find a cucumber that doesn’t have a plastic sleeve. Bonus with the grapes’ plastic is that the wrapper is a type of wrap that is recyclable by the local council, which is an improvement on the wrap (not recyclable) and tray (recyclable) that comes with the grapes from Sainsburys. Though I didn’t get any this week, at the market soft fruit like raspberries and strawberries, come in small plastic containers with no plastic cover (hoorah!). Some packaging is needed for these so you don’t just get mulch when it arrives at the fruit stall, but perhaps there is an alternative out there that doesn’t rely on plastic. There’s also an argument for eating a bit more seasonally and avoiding soft fruit until it’s in season and we can grow/pick our own – more on that in the summer.

Only niggle is that I need to revert my brain to what imperial pounds are in kilos. I also need to develop my upper body strength, as lugging a shed load of fruit and veg back home on foot is hard work!