What alternative is there for plastic packaging in supermarkets?

Caporegime
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What could cold meats be sold in? I have just been to Tesco and bought some ham for my work lunch tomorrow and within seconds I was faced with a plastic heat wrapper empty that will probably last for 100s of years.

What are the alternatives?
 
Paper? I remember my nan buying tongue (jhc) from the butchers wrapped in a sort of grease proof paper inside a white paper bag.
 
I think one of the supermarkets a few months ago were touting taking in your own plastic (Tupperware) containers in for meat cuts.

Morrisons have already introduced brown paper bags for fresh loose veg.
 
What could cold meats be sold in? I have just been to Tesco and bought some ham for my work lunch tomorrow and within seconds I was faced with a plastic heat wrapper empty that will probably last for 100s of years.

What are the alternatives?
There aren't any.

Even the so-called biodegradeable plastics (such as those Chris Packham has put his name to) do not degrade quickly, and in degrading into smaller and smaller particles do not degrade in a manner which prevents plastic particulates entering the food stream.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/plastic-promotion-puts-chris-packham-in-hot-water-gk6jzcdvz

Owning to modern production-line food packaging and distribution methods, which everyone know uses/depends on, plastic is the only material that works.
 
Paper bags. Just don't let the bottom get wet (can remember as a kid my mum putting them down on the tarmac in the rain and... well you can guess the rest).

Paper was what we used to use before plastic took over the packaging world.
 
If only there was a way to cook a large piece of ham and freeze it, then take slices off the frozen ham and reheat them using radiation or convection so they are no longer frozen

We're obviously just born too early to see this amazing technology :rolleyes:

Although there is irony in wanting to avoid a product because it kills wild animals where that product is used to store the meat from murdered animals :D
 
Paper bags. Just don't let the bottom get wet (can remember as a kid my mum putting them down on the tarmac in the rain and... well you can guess the rest).

Paper was what we used to use before plastic took over the packaging world.
The world was different back then. Distribution was different. Production was different.

These things evolved together with plastics.
 
I think one of the supermarkets a few months ago were touting taking in your own plastic (Tupperware) containers in for meat cuts.

Morrisons have already introduced brown paper bags for fresh loose veg.

On the face of it, the Tupperware containers sound like a good idea, but I can envisage murders at the checkouts, when the customer says, “The container only weighs one gram, or .5 of a gram, I only want to pay for the ham/chicken slices in it.”
 
I go months at a time without meat...but when I do fancy a bacon butty or ham salad sandwich there are no options to avoid plastic.

The paper bags from years gone by was from the butchers counter...things have moved on and you can buy your meat at 3am ...

Paper wouldn’t work for long term storage on the shelves
 
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If only there was a way to cook a large piece of ham and freeze it, then take slices off the frozen ham and reheat them using radiation or convection so they are no longer frozen

We're obviously just born too early to see this amazing technology :rolleyes:

Although there is irony in wanting to avoid a product because it kills wild animals where that product is used to store the meat from murdered animals :D


Genuinely curious what knife you have that can slice properly frozen meat
 
Genuinely curious what knife you have that can slice properly frozen meat

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Should also work OK on frozen meat. :p
 
Ekoplaza in Amsterdam opened up a plastic free packaging isle this year. It uses materials like starch, wood pulp, paper, cardboard and so on.

There was plenty of news about it at the time.
 
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