Back home

[hmpf]

I'm back home from my trip to Wales; it was an epic voyage, but one I feel too tired to recount today.

In the meantime, have some reasons to avoid buying and using plastic stuff whenever possible. (I noticed this is much more difficult to do in Britain, where even raspberries are packaged in big, sturdy plastic box-type things. I have to admit I sinned a bit while there.)

Comments

[space-oddity-75.livejournal.com]

Welcome back, darling! Hope you had a great time in Wales! :)

You're right abot the problem of plastics. As far as my experience goes, Germany is the only country who seems to be really environmentally-minded (unlike Italy, where plastics is everywhere and finding a bottle that is not made of PET or packages that are not made of plastics is almost impossible)!

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Yay, I'm glad you got home safely! I hope it wasn't quite as epic a trip back as it was to get here in the first place? I don't know if you got my email but my mail.com account is buggered at the moment, so get in touch with me via beccatoria at hotmail dot com?

I'm sorry all our raspberries are in HUGE plastic containers! I remember loving that when I was a kid, great for making things out of, though hard to paint nice colours. /random tangents about enormous plastic containers.

[starwatcher]

.
Yes, plastic packaging is a big problem in America, too. I can (and do) avoid using plastic grocery-shopping bags, carry water in a canteen instead of plastic bottle, but there's no way to avoid the plastic packaging around everything. A few weeks ago, I bought batteries for my new camera. Each battery is 1.5 by 2 inches; the plastic package is 4 by 9 inches. But I need the batteries, and that's how they're sold; I don't have a choice. Many fruits and vegetables are, as you say, pre-packaged in plastic. If they're not offered in bulk, the shopper can't shop 'green'.

I don't know the answer. The manufacturers could make packaging much smaller and more compact, or use cellulose plastic, but they don't care.
.

[tiniago.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I hope you and wonderful beccatoria squished each other a LOT and there was merriment and dancing, etc. Did you eat lots of cheddar? :D

I am experimenting with sloooowly pushing the boundaries of how many individual pieces of fruit Sainsburys will weigh before the cashier glares at you with hatred in their eyes and insists you put them together in a plastic bag. I fear that look of hatred, I fear it!

:-)

[hmpf.livejournal.com]

>Ooh, I hope you and wonderful beccatoria squished each other a LOT and there was merriment and dancing, etc.

There was certainly *some* squishing, and much geeking out: I made her read strange comics, she made me watch Battlestar Galactica... We also went to Plymouth, where I had spectacular icecream, and bought a glorious shower cap, and collected beautiful pebbles which will one day, perhaps, become a necklace.

>Did you eat lots of cheddar? :D

Of course! Alas, I forgot to provision myself properly before the trip back, so I didn't actually bring much home with me. The sadness! (I'll have to try the expensive British Shop here in Frankfurt sometime...)

I did bring home the customary Kilo Of Chocolate.

>I am experimenting with sloooowly pushing the boundaries of how many individual pieces of fruit Sainsburys will weigh before the cashier glares at you with hatred in their eyes and insists you put them together in a plastic bag. I fear that look of hatred, I fear it!

Don't fear it! Arm yourself with righteousness! Or something. *g*

You should come to Germany. There are now two big organic supermarkets in my street. (Admittedly, this is probably somewhat above average even for Germany - it's because this is an area with lots of students and so on.)

Seriously, you should come to Germany again. Not just for the organic shopping.

Re: :-)

[tiniago.livejournal.com]

Oh god, I am trying to imagine you taking a kilo of cheese on an eighteen hour bus journey back to Germany and SO GLAD YOU DIDN'T, CHRISTINA, SO GLAD. I am heartily amused at the idea of there being an Expensive British Shop in Frankfurt. I cannot IMAGINE what anyone on the Continent would want from Britain. Except perhaps Marmite.

I am very glad you bought a lovely... showercap. *baffled* After all, the artisans of the Britsh Isles are famous for their... showercaps. *still baffled* :D

Omg, Beccatoria's posts always make me want to watch Battlestar Galactica, I even bought a friend the first season of it on DVD based entirely on her and Charlie Brooker's recommendations and I think a tiny snippet of it you showed us when we came to see you, but I have yet to see a single episode. ONE DAY. ONE DAY.

Ha, if righteousness habitually triumphed over social censure THINK how much better a world we would live in, my friend! It's all right now anyway, I've saved half a dozen little plastic vegetable bags and am re-using them. THAT IS MY COMPROMISE.

Not just for the organic shopping.

WHAT? You are suggesting that there could be an attraction in Germany EVEN GREATER than the organic shopping?? ;D

Oh, I totally want to come to Germany again. Have NO idea when I'll get the opportunity though... pretty much certainly not before I'm working and have, you know, an income :/. But then! We can come on sophisticated weekend jaunts! Or, you know, something. :D *hope*