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30 Times Food Packaging Was So Wrong, People Couldn’t Stay Silent Any Longer
We know what a lot of you Pandas are like. You care about Mother Earth and its delicious bamboo groves, lush forests, and comfy nooks and crannies where you can nap. So you recycle. You also cycle to work instead of driving your Pandamobile. And you buy products that are more eco-friendly and use less plastic. Because every little step really does matter.
But let’s face it, if you’re like us, sometimes when you walk into a grocery store you might lose hope when you spot just how much unnecessary packaging is used to pack some food products. And by unnecessary packaging, we mean U n N e C e S s A r Y to the point that you feel all of your environmentally friendly actions suddenly mean very little when faced with systemic issues on an industrial scale.
We wanted to show you just how plastically insane things can get, so our bamboo-loving Bored Panda team hiked all through the internet wilds to bring you the most egregious examples of wasteful food packaging. Have a scroll down below, upvote the pics that made you want to throw your recycling bin at somebody, and let us know how you feel about all of this plastic waste in the comments.
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Ridiculously Redundant Over-Packaging
Hong Kong Supermarket Selling Individually Plastic Wrapped And Boxed Strawberry. For $21. One Strawberry
Replacing The Egg Shell With More Plastic To Go Into The Ocean
Setting aside the practical long-term economic and ecological worries that we have for our own survival, we have to realize that our attitudes toward our environment, plastic pollution, and consumption reflect who we are inside.
Not to sound too cheesy (don’t worry, it’s vegan), but the fight for a clean and healthy planet is also a fight for our very souls. We can either live wastefully, destroying everything around us for short-term pleasure and profit or we can choose to live with wisdom, respecting our role as a part of nature. Now, this certainly doesn’t mean living as ascetically as a monk would, but it doesn’t hurt to have a more minimalist outlook to counter the throwaway society that we live in.
Packaged Chopped Parsley
Plastic Has To Removed From Every Single Mini Sausage Before Cooking
I don't know in other countries, but here in México that isn't plastic, is some sort of gelatin film completly edible, you can choose if you eat it or discard it.
If Only Oranges Came With Their Own Protective Packaging So We Didn't Have To Use Plastic
FYI Those are mandarins... Not hating, just stating facts. Incredible post and caption though!
Single-use plastics currently account for more than a third of all plastics produced each year. What’s more, 98 percent of single-use plastics are manufactured from fossil fuels. Tackling this issue, then, is a vital part of protecting our environment and our future. The BBC reports that an analysis of the business network behind plastic production found that a mere 20 companies are the source of more than half of all the single-use plastic items that are thrown away all over the world.
Individually Wrapped Grapes In Japan
Your Coke Needs That Plastic
The Three Layers Of Plastic Protection For These Oranges. How Is This Even Allowed?
“Plastic bottles, food packages, and bags are among billions of items that are used once and then thrown away, often ending up in the oceans,” the BBC writes about the impact these companies, the largest producer of single-use plastic of which is ExxonMobil, have on the world.
Such A Waste Of Plastic
Asparagus Water???
What Can You Even Make With 1 Tomato?? The Styrofoam Bedding
According to the research, conducted among others by the London School of Economics, part of the increase in single-use plastic waste is due to the Covid-19 pandemic, with protective and medical equipment having to be discarded for health and safety reasons.
I Can’t Even Imagine How Much Plastic Waste Is Just Sitting In Landfills Because Of Pointless Things Like This
Do you see the stickers on the potatoes? "Microwave ready". They are for bringing into work and bunging in the microwave with the plastic still on. Because if you're stuck with only a microwave, plastic wrapped potatoes apparently taste better when microwaved and not every workplace has cling wrap. Actually saves some plastic use with how some people trail cling wrap.
Pre Peeled Bananas In Plastic. There Is So Much Wrong With This!!
Spraying Water Over Vegetables Wrapped In Plastic, Complete Waste
The United Kingdom is in fourth place in its plastic consumption, with each citizen generating over 40 kilograms of single-use plastic waste per year. Australia is in first place, meanwhile, the United States stands in second place.
Looks Like Some People Are Still Grapeling With Their New Year's Resolutions
Harry & David Strawberries
Wouldn't It Be Nice If Fruit Like Bananas Had Their Own Natural Packaging To Help Reduce Plastic Pollution?
Essentially, what the report showed is that the future of the plastic waste crisis lies in the hands of a handful of companies. Therefore change that affects our environment on a global scale ought to start from there.
This Is Some Next Level Laziness
My Wife Wanted Peeled Garlic. They Peeled, Then Individually Wrapped Them
A Packaged Lemon, With The Slogan "Waste Less, Enjoy More"
“It's an extraordinary point of leverage for regulators, for finance institutions, to influence them in order that rather than producing from fossil fuels, they produce plastic that's recycled,” said Dominic Charles, the Minderoo Foundation’s director of finance and transparency. The Minderoo Foundation published the research findings.
"We need to go after the tap, to turn off the tap of fossil fuel plastics and we need to create plastics from recycled material,” Charles from the Minderoo Foundation said.
My Hellofresh Meal Kit Came With 4 Individually Bagged Carrots And A Bagged Slice Of Bread
This Individually Packaged Slice Of Whole Wheat Bread
Cannot Beleaf This From M&s
In short, there’s a need to put a stop to the production of single-use plastics from non-recyclable materials, in order to counteract the report’s grim prognosis: within the next 5 years, plastic production is set to expand by a whopping 30 percent.
If Only Bananas Had Robust, Natural, Bio-Degradable Packaging Of Their Own. Some Sort Of Peelable Skin, Perhaps
It's Getting Hot In Here, So Take Off All Your Cloves
The Most Ridiculous Part About Living In Japan: Plastic Everywhere!
Individually Wrapped Gummy Bears
These Peeled Avocados Wrapped In Plastic
Individually Wrapped Peppers That Are Used For Salad And Pre Cut Into 1/4s Just To Have To Be Cut Again Into Smaller Pieces
I know as a society we are becoming more and more time poor but this is just ridiculous.
Note: this post originally had 70 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
This whole post literally makes me seethe. Boycott boycott boycott people.
I do. I buy my food from my local grocery who supports our community, and fruit and veg from the roadside stands. I never shop in a department store or buy stuff on the net, I buy everything I need from thrift stores, from my furniture to my underwear I support my local instead of corporations. Our charities support women, men and families in time of need and every dollar i spend there helps someone.
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Simple solution to this plastic pollution: Do not buy products packed in excessive amounts of plastic.
I try incredibly hard to not buy plastic at the grocery store but my God it is hard. A lot of things I just don't buy at all now. Produce section is the most infuriating because it doesn't need plastic but all the fruit my local store sells comes in plastic. I miss berries.
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As someone whose arthritis makes dinner-prep excruciating, I can see how the pre-peeled fruit would be great for people with disabilities who might otherwise struggle to peel an orange or something like that. Once you start individually wrapping them though it goes back to causing the issue that it was resolving (those individually-wrapped garlic cloves are ridiculous). Individually-wrapped grapes don't need to exist, non-peeled fruit doesn't need plastic, and why does it all have to be plastic??????? There are other options! Like letting the non-peeled orange breath free!
This whole post literally makes me seethe. Boycott boycott boycott people.
I do. I buy my food from my local grocery who supports our community, and fruit and veg from the roadside stands. I never shop in a department store or buy stuff on the net, I buy everything I need from thrift stores, from my furniture to my underwear I support my local instead of corporations. Our charities support women, men and families in time of need and every dollar i spend there helps someone.
Load More Replies... Simple solution to this plastic pollution: Do not buy products packed in excessive amounts of plastic.
I try incredibly hard to not buy plastic at the grocery store but my God it is hard. A lot of things I just don't buy at all now. Produce section is the most infuriating because it doesn't need plastic but all the fruit my local store sells comes in plastic. I miss berries.
Load More Replies... As someone whose arthritis makes dinner-prep excruciating, I can see how the pre-peeled fruit would be great for people with disabilities who might otherwise struggle to peel an orange or something like that. Once you start individually wrapping them though it goes back to causing the issue that it was resolving (those individually-wrapped garlic cloves are ridiculous). Individually-wrapped grapes don't need to exist, non-peeled fruit doesn't need plastic, and why does it all have to be plastic??????? There are other options! Like letting the non-peeled orange breath free!
