Consumers ripped off on fresh fruit and vegetables, charged more for loose produce than plastic wrapped equivalent: new report - Australian Marine Conservation Society

Yeah, what a world, ask people to do the sane thing, nope, literally no shits given.

Don't let perfect be the enemy of good

Years ago, i started reusing those older, heavier plastic bags, instead of getting new ones of those thin compostable bags that you usually see now.

This is 8 or 10 years ago now, i still have some of those and reuse them for my shopping now. Single use my bum!

Problem i sometimes have with buying reusables is, are we actually getting into negative waste territory when we conduct these practices. Generally reusable mesh bags will be more polluting to produce, so if they are lost, or broken sooner than they cross that threshold, the whole activity has ended up being a net negative.

You see the same issue with lots of reusable things of course, as i'm sure people are well aware of.

I do it mostly so when I get home I can add to my stash of bags for scooping doggy poop.

It seems crazy to buy a roll of brand new plastic bags for dog poo when produce bags are available, and I'm buying produce. For certain vegetables they actually store well in the bags with a tea towel thrown in, so sure a container, and mesh bag would do the same job, but then I'd also need to buy dog poo bags and that feels like a waste.

I keep the plastic packaging from the frozen Peas and the sliced bread and between that and produce bags I've got enough. I could buy compostable/biodegradable bags if I'm worried about waste, but I don't have access to composting so it's still going in landfill and it doesn't break down properly there.

Pre-packaging moves a decent amount of spoilage from the shop to the customer. Nobody will want to choose the somewhat sad-looking fruit/veggie when they're loose, but they can easily be hidden in a bag of 10.

I's thinking for pre-packaged, as in before it gets to the store, it'd be a difference in handling and shelf stocking at the store level.

And plastic would protect from bugs, and humans doing things to the fruit and veg that they don't actually buy. I's told by a friend that people will stick their nails into apples, piercing the skin, as some kind of subtle test of the fruit. Maybe thats part of it.

But i dont know. Maybe the grocery stores think think the plastic makes it last longer. Until i read this article last night i thought that was the undisputed case.

This is a review of supermarkets, but with regards to the independent grocers I always assumed it was related to quality. The bagged fruits and vegetables tend to be older or less ripe.

i’ve always just assumed it’s a “buy 10 get a discount” situation… but yeah it’s pretty annoying