Sick & tired of single use plastics in supermarkets

Sam from Warkworth

I'm sick and tired of this pathetic excuse of environmental care that we have with single use plastics.

Shame on the government for "ticking the box" thinking they made any change when they banned single use carry plastic bags, and straws. This changes nothing!

Every time we go shopping I feel bad! Here's an example of a fraction of what I see.

* Spinach/herbs - in single use plastic

* Cucumber - individually wrapped in single use plastic (WHY??)

* Yakult - the sweet ones are in plastic bottles, but the sugar free's plastic bottles are each wrapped in single use plastic (again, why?!)

* Juices in plastic bottles with single-use plastic tightly wrapped around the bottles. Some don't have an easy way to remove it (how many of us do anyway?).

* Toast - wrapped in single use plastic.

* Cereal - cardboard box with single use plastic inside

* Oat cookies - cardboard box of 20 cookies, with each 4 cookies wrapped in single use plastic

* Capsicums - 4 wrapped in single use plastic

* Fruits - rolls and rolls of single use plastic you can use, one for each type of fruit you get

* Tomatoes - in a cardboard plate, wrapped in single use plastic

* Rice - 1kg in single use plastic

* Indome Noodles - each noodle wrapped in single use plastic, with plastic saches inside, and all ~5 wrapped in single use plastic.

* Meat - on plastic trays covered in single use plastic (do you really put meat/chicken covered plastic in your recycling, ending up with a nasty stench? Or do you end up throwing it in the bin?)

* Nuts - yep.. single use plastic bags to fill with nuts & weigh.

* Cheese - wrapped in single use plastics

The list sadly goes on, and on, and on...

Add to the above, that you can easily and very cheaply buy single use plastic bags from AliExpress, as well as straws, making the local ban completely useless.

For example,

www.aliexpress.com...

www.aliexpress.com...

Also add to that how difficult it is for us to recycle (if it even ends up recycled) single use plastics. There's nowhere in Warkworth that accepts said plastics. Closest is Whangaparaoa. You really think everyone of us north of the tunnel will be saving plastics and making the trip down?


We're not doing near enough here. The current 2022-2025 phase out feels like more of a campaign promise to win votes, than something that will actually make a difference.

And I haven't mentioned other plastics like the "recyclable" ones where you end up using once & throwing away anyway! Or the commercial use of plastics at shocking levels.