Thursday, February 22, 2007

war on (some) waste

In December, The Independent launched its War On Waste campaign. There have been several front page splashes and numerous smaller articles.

It names and shames supermarkets who plastic wrap each pepper and swede, it invites readers to send in examples of overpackaged items.

Imagine - needlessly using finite oil reserves to make plastic for such pointless wrappings.

There's one glaring example I can think of. Wrapping water in plastic and wasting fossil fuels to ship it hundreds, even thousands, of miles to places that already have plenty of water.

Six weeks into their campaign, The Independent are still publishing 'infuriating' examples of 'absurd packaging', such as this

Water in bottles is about 1,000 times more expensive than tap water, which has no need for any packaging.
The same week, they ran a promotional deal. If you bought a copy in a WH Smith in a railway station or, ahem, an airport you got a free bottle of water. Shipped in from France.

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