France is usually towards the head of the race when it comes to all things 'environmental'.
You probably heard recently that our supermarkets are no longer allowed to throw away food; These bags are another example of public environmental awareness.
I bought a couple of small purple tinged Turnips recently, and noticed that the bags on offer were totally different to the usual ones. They are very silky to the touch, and are printed with a message saying that they can actually be COMPOSTED.
I tried never to use the old plastic bags; I just stuck the price label on whatever I was buying. Now I shan't feel too guilty if I'm forced to use a bag.
It will go into my compost bucket, and help to grow next year's Tomatoes. Bravo!
That's a real advancement, compostable bags. Carrefour here for a while had bags which disintegrated after 6 months but the greek company which bought them out (and went bankrupt) hasn't continued them.
ReplyDeleteOf course the old 'paper bags' were compostable, but we don't see those much any more.
DeleteI guess you have to cut down trees to make paper bags ??? Swings and roundabouts as you say !
DeleteWe also have to use them here. I believe they are made with starch corn. They are biodegradable but not very strong.
ReplyDeleteGreetings Maria x
This was the first time I'd seen them. I don't buy vegetables too often (I grow my own) so I was pleasantly surprised.
DeleteWe have here a new "plastic bags law", we have to pay for them ifwe dont bring our own cloth bags from home.
ReplyDeleteI think they have that in the UK too.
DeleteYes, it is like the old days when if we wanted a carrier bag we paid for it. A very good idea.
DeleteI suppose you just did it to try one out. I stick the label straight on the veg or fruit or the outside of my bag and zap it with the zapper; no more queuing and going through check outs, unloading and reloading, for me.
ReplyDeleteIf I buy just one Melon/Pineapple/Avocado, etc, I always just stick the price on directly. In this case I bought two Turnips, so it wasn't quite so easy.
DeleteThat's great but I'm not entirely sure that I would want to add them to my compost heap. The worms might suffocate.
ReplyDeleteThe Rats suffocate, the worms just use them as bed sheets.
DeleteThey are very bright these Frenchies
ReplyDeleteThey have their moments.
DeleteIt's a pity that they don't have them at the checkout so that items of clothing can be put in them for the journey home. Sometimes things do have to be get brought back and I fear for the cleanliness and perhaps pulled threads after sculling about in a basket or car boot.
ReplyDeletePutting new clothes on the moving belt at the checkout is bad enough; they're usually filthy!
DeleteI am very recycle conscious but the farmer less so I am afraid.
ReplyDeleteAt lease we now have a ruling here that supermarkets must charge 5p for each plastic carrier bag = this will have stopped wome of the awful land fill I hope.
My grand daughter, who has a new baby, questioned me at the weekend at what happened to all the disposable nappies - did they go into landfill? Surely we are going to run out of land fill sites one day.
Sorry about the spelling mistakes!
ReplyDeleteI would have though that old nappies could be 'composted' or buried. I presume they are made of natural materials. Of course this would only be available for country dwellers.
DeleteIn Derbyshire we have been putting our waste food, including table debris, in our green garden waste bin and been supplied with mini food buckets for the kitchen to help the process. To make the bucket a less offensive item to have kicking around in the kitchen you can buy those compostable bags to line it. They disintegrate when damp.
ReplyDeleteI therefore recognised instantly the change in the supermarket food bags when they appeared in Intermarché last autumn. I used to feel less guilty about the original bags if I reused them but the new ones are not really reusable. It might mean I end up buying food bags and bin liners again, so does that really reduce the amount of overall plastic in the rubbish?
I'm sure it's all swings and roundabouts. The manufacturing process for these new bags is probably no different to the old ones, we just feel better because we can compost them.
DeleteOr smoke and mirrors. Well meaning politicians feeling good for looking like they're helping to save the planet!
DeleteIf the bags disintegrate when damp then all our 'peely bin' waste, c/w tea bags, would discharge between the kitchen and the compost bin. I'd have to line the bag with a bag to line the bin.....
DeleteBravo indeed !
ReplyDeleteYes. Bravo!
DeleteHere in Ontario, we bring our own bags (cloth) to the supermarket. If we require plastic bags, there is a charge per bag. If supermarkets are no longer allowed to throw away food, what do they do with it? I've seen some programmes where food waste is given to large hog farms. -Jenn
ReplyDeleteIn France pukka shopping baskets are de rigeur. Either wicker or raffia woven. You never see people advertising supermarkets on the sides of plastic bags.
DeleteThe food goes to any needy cause. Hospitals, schools, the homeless, the poor, etc.
DeleteI think it's wonderful that supermarkets can't throw away food. There is so very much waste here in America. Some people have survived quite happily by "dumpster diving" behind supermarkets.
DeleteIt's a scandal how much wastage there is in the world. It's estimated that over 30% of all food production ends up thrown away.
DeleteI always take a raffia shopping basket with me and never buy the 5p plastic ones, when I shop...but I don't compost or grow anything...maybe this year I will try.
ReplyDeleteThe French 'Cabas' bags are perfect for normal shopping. I haven't used anything else for decades (not the same one of course).
DeleteThis past year we gave up buying all disposables except toilet paper. (We still have a tiny bit of class) So we don't buy paper towels, plastic bags, plastic food wrap, foil, napkins. We started it because it was cheaper, but now we realize how much TRASH we were throwing out, we became eco-friendly in a backwards sense I suppose. Nice looking turnip by the way.
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing what you can do without when you start to think about it. The only plastic bags I now have are from my fishmonger. He gives me quite strong blue plastic bags that I keep in my pocket, and later use for collecting road-side rubbish etc.
DeleteThe Turnips were delicious; roasted.
Ah - can;t wait for that to be available here! Brilliant!!!
ReplyDeleteDo they say how long it takes for them to degrade? Hope your tomatoes don't come out "pre-wrapped"!
ReplyDelete