Should OCUK (And its customers) do its bit to "Save the Planet"?

Orionaut

Orionaut

Orionaut

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Now, there have been a number of posts regarding the serious issue of plastic pollution.

Plastic pollution, particularly of the water (Oceans, Fresh, drinking etc) and the long term implications for the food chain and indeed life and health not only for people but all living things are still a bit of a wild card. and we do not yet know just how serious the longer term issues are going to be.

Nevertheless it is becoming increasingly clear that Plastics are unlike any other form of pollution the biosphere have ever experienced. They are totally synthetic and unnatural and incredibly persistant. Life has mechanisms for coping with pretty much every other sorts of pollution in that for pretty much everything else it simply a case of "Dose makes the poison" Even nuclear waste is essentially "Natural" and life has mechanisms to cope with low level nuclear radiation. (And in any case, the really dangerous stuff doesn't stick arround for long, that's why it is dangerous) and even the worst of synthetic poisonous industrial chemicals will eventually degrade

Plastic micro-particles are however likely to remain in the biosphere for geologic amounts of time. And in some ways are also likely to become more dangerous over time rather than less as the particles wear down and become smaller and easier to absorb. Future geologists will even in millions of years time be able to study "Plastic Shale" sedimentary rocks.

This stuff is simply not going to go away. You may not be able to see it any more but it will still be there.

So. What is OCUK going to do about it?

Is OCUK going to be the corporation that is going to be nice to fish? (And would OCUK's customers be willing to pay for it?)

Today I received a parcel. Components wrapped in (Plastic) bubble wrap surrounded by large plastic "Giant Bubble wrap"

So, Is there an alternative?

Is there a sort of paper/card equivalent for bubble wrap?

Could one use popcorn as an alternative to those polystyrene chips also used in packing?

Is there a sticky paper alternative to the plastic parcel tape?

How much exra would this actually cost?

Somebody has to make the first move and, in the main, I would think that the typical OCUK customer would be more sympathetic to such a move even if stuff did cost a little more.

So, over to you GD, what do you think?

PS Damn typo! You never see it until after one has posed :( Mods, Please correct error in title. :p
 
Those "polystyrene" chips are already biodegradable, made of corn starch I believe. I guess the question to ask is whether the environmental impact from waste of components and repeated transportation costs due to damage caused by inferior packaging is greater than that of plastic use? Saying that, Amazon seem to do OK with their 138 miles of brown paper packaging per parcel...
 
A really useful thing about plastics is being cheap and needing a small amount to create a waterproof barrier.

Wood pulp can't do that.

When you see a paper cup it may display the half truth that it can be recycled. It's coated with plastic and is actually worthless to try and separate the plastic from the wood pulp. But in theory because you'll find no one that does it, it could be.

Ditto for any "paper" bags which are used to contain food which has moisture in it. That's not paper holding it together against the food moisture.

"Cardboard" drinks cartons should go without mention. In fact any kind of cardboard food carton which isn't for dry product. Even then cereals tend to plastic bag again but at least its separate so it can honestly be recycled.

Composite or de facto composite materials (somehow attached so its a massive embuggerance to separate them vs the value of doing it) poison the potential to recycle products. It's done because it's a cheap hybrid and people not looking closely will be fooled by the paper exterior.

Not exactly in the consumers hands to change that.
 
Lol, most of our recycled trash ended up abroad over the past decade because that **** was worthless here, with China banning said practice, all that plastic you throw into the recycling is just getting put into piles waiting for an incinerator instead, because amazingly (not really) we suck at recycling.

The government's simply realised it's a hell of a lot less trouble (less jobs too for the plebs) to just tell the companies to stop using the stuff or "else".
 
I'm very much of the opinion that plastic needs to be ruled out. Thing is, I don't know how we could package stuff like PC components without it. We could use egg carton style cardboard for the inner packaging and regular cardboard for the outer packaging but what's this like in terms of static protection, and how could we waterproof it? I'd love to work towards a plastic free society and would happily put my money where my mouth is but I don't really know where to start to be honest.
 
the future is new water resistant biodegradable plastics.

plastic far too useful to remove - how do you think your food stays fresh on the way to this country?
 
Seen a lot about the plastics in the ocean recently, but isn't one of the bigger problems that most of this plastic is not put there by Europe, but by Asia/Africa?

I am definitely in favor of having more eco-friendly packaging where feasible, I guess the only way we'll get there is by degrees.
 
Here in the Middle East when you do a weekly food shop virtually every item gets it's own plastic carrier bag and within a month I get around 100of these bags (the supermarkets won't re-use old bags if you take them in), so regardless of how much a few "1st world" nations charging a bit of money to "reduce usage" helps, the amount dumped by rest of the world is stunning and makes those little cuts we make insignificant.
 
Ah in that case let's not bother. Let's stick with the status quo to our slow but inevitable demise.

It's apathetic attitudes like yours that prohibit any movement forward on issues like this.
 
Arsonist said:
Ah in that case let's not bother. Let's stick with the status quo to our slow but inevitable demise.

It's apathetic attitudes like yours that prohibit any movement forward on issues like this.
Click to expand...

Apathetic - I say realistic and, just to be clear, I didn't say that we shouldn't be doing anything (you've decided to make that bit up) only that we should be realistic with our expectations of just how little of an effect we're actually having "in the grand scheme", something akin to throwing a cup of water on a house fire when what we as a planet really need is the fire brigade instead, but that just doesn't seem to be something we're capable of doing right now as a global community.
 
hate to say it, but imo pc components are one of the few areas where plastics are a necessary evil given that they are:
expensive
sensitive to water
not mechanically strong

so i'd say leave it, what's of more importance to acheive is to eliminate plastic use where it serves no purpose, like those endless cardboard box with a plastic bag inside food containers, pick one and stick with it ffs

also things like tools etc tend to come in hard blister packs, why? if it needs that to protect it then it's ****

and plastic drinks bottles- the germans got it right, make the bottles much heavier and stronger so they can be re-used multiple times, then reuse them multiple times, rather than really flimsy bottles that just get chucked out.

it's the simple things, and unfortunately as consumers there's not much we can do unless it's properly en masse. but there is a LOT can be acheived by manufacturers applying a bit of common sense and simply asking "is plastic really necessary here?" and if the answer is no just dont use it.

perfect example- multipack yoghurts, why have a 6 pack in a plastic bag instead of a cardboard holder, or better yet just have the price of 6 individual tubs be the same as the multipack, why are you charging people less for something that costs more?
 
it strikes me silly that we can already do something to save the planet - all those offices, buildings, shops etc who keep their lights on after closing hours - just imagine how much less C02 would be produced if we switched it off. Or if when we used toilets we didnt flush after no 1..
there are some things we can do already that we dont do..
 
Have you ever seen a toilet after 10 number ones - it's yellow and stinks as most people who were around for drought in 1976 will testify - you would be bettor off going behind the garden shed :rolleyes:
 
adolf hamster said:
hate to say it, but imo pc components are one of the few areas where plastics are a necessary evil given that they are:
expensive
sensitive to water
not mechanically strong

so i'd say leave it, what's of more importance to acheive is to eliminate plastic use where it serves no purpose, like those endless cardboard box with a plastic bag inside food containers, pick one and stick with it ffs

also things like tools etc tend to come in hard blister packs, why? if it needs that to protect it then it's ****

and plastic drinks bottles- the germans got it right, make the bottles much heavier and stronger so they can be re-used multiple times, then reuse them multiple times, rather than really flimsy bottles that just get chucked out.

it's the simple things, and unfortunately as consumers there's not much we can do unless it's properly en masse. but there is a LOT can be acheived by manufacturers applying a bit of common sense and simply asking "is plastic really necessary here?" and if the answer is no just dont use it.

perfect example- multipack yoghurts, why have a 6 pack in a plastic bag instead of a cardboard holder, or better yet just have the price of 6 individual tubs be the same as the multipack, why are you charging people less for something that costs more?
Click to expand...


Things like tools often come in blister packs not so much for protection against damage, but protection against theft and to make it easy to display them.

I would love to see more companies do the "frustration free" packaging, and a lot of companies making certain computer parts do try to use as much card based packaging as possible (anyone notice how things like printers and even external hard drives and optical drives now routinely come in a card box with pulped card insets rather than the old polystyrene forms), but it's something that isn't always practical at retail level unless the retailer is purely mail order or can put them inside display packaging (for example the plastic display boxes some stores use for games, razors etc).

One thing that does annoy me is that we're meant to be recycling plastic bags and packaging of all types, but there is practically nowhere that will accept plastic bags (only place near me is Tesco, when they've got the collection bin thing out), so a lot of people don't bother to try (I've ended up with 3 or 4 bags filled with plastic bags in the boot of the car ready for when I'm at our local teso).

I would love to see some of the grocery delivery companies do a "deposit and return" thing for resuable delivery boxes so you could accept the delivery in a box, then at the next delivery return the bos. We still have half a dozen or so of the old Safeway's green boxes that they tried about 20 years ago which were great, as they fitted exactly into the base of their trolleys, but they stopped doing them then changed the trolleys (those boxes have had years of work at the likes of Lidl and Aldi when we've been shopping there).
 
Werewolf said:
Things like tools often come in blister packs not so much for protection against damage, but protection against theft and to make it easy to display them.
Click to expand...

I used to work in a hardware store, screws came in cardboard boxes of a gross (12 dozen) and the customer could buy any number of individual screws, put in a paper bag. Nails were also loose and bought by weight. Tools and fixings were generally unwrapped and similarly packaged in paper or sold unpackaged at the counter.

'Fork handles' anybody?

It also meant that the staff had to be able to add up correctly and calculate the cost for loose items.

As for the OP's question, yes we should care.
 
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