The new banish plastic movements

[Skippy]

One type of plastic that really infuriates me is the shrink wrap used on ironmongery . I was again reminded of this today when putting up a handrail , the brackets were supplied in pairs shrink wrapped on a piece of card. It's not the sort of plastic that can be easily removed and left at the shop either , in fact just the opposite it is a right pain to rip and especially on awkward shaped items needs to be carefully cut off so as not to damage or scratch the item.

[Flo]

Whatever happened to loo paper from recycled materials? That's disappeared from shelves.

[diggernotdreamer]

Whatever happened to loo paper from recycled materials? That's disappeared from shelves.

I still manage to find that, but it still has a plastic wrapper. Just bought a box of toilet rolls from 'Who Give a Crap', non chlorine bleached, recycled paper and 50 per cent of the profits are donated to providing safe toilet facilities in the developing world, each one is twice the length of normal rolls and are wrapped in a nice paper so you can use it for wrapping gifts if you want. I went to collect my box from the parcel motel and it said you've got a lovely bottom

[Flo]

Really DNd.

[Weedo]

recycled loo paper - oops, loo paper made from recycled paper and wrapped in recycled paper is still on the supermaket shelves here

[Green Aura]

When I was at uni there were two lecturers who were in complete disagreement about recycled paper products. One said that the distances traveled to recycling plants far outweighed any environmental benefits from recycling. The other, although he didn't necessarily disagree with the "paper miles" argument, insisted that it was part of the educational process to get people into regularly using recycled stuff so the extra fuel was a short term measure for a larger outcome.

It was obviously a good few years ago and there may be more recycling plants these days, or maybe it has done its job and manufacturers are incorporating some level of recycled paper as standard. Either way I don't sweat it, just buy what's available.

What I can't get behind are these loo rolls doused in aloe vera, shea butter or perfumes.

[Skippy]

I was under the impression that toilet roll was always made with a percentage of recycled materials.
On the subject of Green Aura's two lecturers while I can see the point about the amount of energy used to transport and process paper for recycling I do wonder how that balances up with the transport and process of trees for pulping? And what percentage of our paper is made from trees imported from scandavia or Canada?
One other thing to add. I've worked on building sites and event sites where the blue portable toilets are used . Ironically for this thread made almost entirely from plastic . I've watched when they are collected and noticed any part used , or opened toilet rolls and paper towels are just binned or to put it another way they are never set up with part rolls in the first place. As a result come the end of an event or prior to the toilet being removed I help myself to any toilet rolls in there.

[diggernotdreamer]

Family cloth, just putting that there yup

[Skippy]

I had to check just what family cloths are and I'm , hmm , in two minds.
Less trees chopped up but then probably quite a bit of energy would get used in the washing of them. Still the Romans used a sponge on a stick so perfectly viable . Personally I just use bog standard paper ( see what I did there?) and compost it.

[Flo]

Bad joke aside Skippy - I bet you get plastic to hold a number of loo rolls together all the same.

[Skippy]

Does toilet roll come in paper wrappings these days , or at least what we may call mainstream products because as far as I can see ( not that I do much looking ) it all has plastic outer wrapping.
Incidentally when I mentioned the portaloo tale the rolls normally come in pairs but perhaps I wasn't clear , I've seen a packet that has been opened so still has one full unused roll chucked in the skip.

[diggernotdreamer]

https://uk.whogivesacrap.org/

[Flo]

A plastic free high street by 2042?

It's a video but I see no way of posting videos or YouTube direct.

Talking of which - PhD video from YouTube

[Skippy]

https://uk.whogivesacrap.org/

Thanks for that. I'll post a link , https://www.amazon.co.uk/Essentials-She ... olls&psc=1
A link that frankly in many ways is frustrating .ok so the roll sizes are different and the number of rolls are different but doing the maths the whogivesacrap stuff is wrapped in paper and comes out at 0.1875p a sheet whereas the plastic wrapped stuff from the dodgy tax avoiders is 0.11276 p. I don't see why there's such a discrepancy and why using alternatives to plastics should be more expensive especially for this type of product. To many people cost is an important consideration ,ok there's an argument that we have been conditioned to think that way but it makes it such an uphill battle to get change.

[Flo]

The same logic seems to apply to why we still have plastic drinking straws - it's too costly for business to use alternatives at present according to this BBC report.

Mind having been in dire straits (no not the pop group) of various sorts I know that sometimes price really does count.