Ok some things you can’t find plastic free and can’t give up. So which plastic packaging has the least impact?

A lot of food now is packaged in lovely looking ,printed, laminated plastic film.  Or to put it more simply several layers of plastic each with different properties stuck together.

This method of making plastic films leads to a very versatile product that looks good and has a wide range of uses.

On the down side these films are difficult to recycle.

Because they consist of different plastics bonded together it is difficult to know what they are and how to treat them and separating the films is tricky and so very expensive. Films therefore often don’t get recycled but burnt or landfilled. You can find out more about the plastic used to wrap your food here.

The best advice here is avoid the fancy graphics and shiny films and go for the simple, eausily recyclable polythene.

Polythene  Wrapped Products

Goodness ON LINE

Internet store Goodness can supply you with a whole load of  beans and other dried stuff in polythene bags. At least they used to. It’s a while since I used them so double check and please report back!

Please note, many  of the companies featured on their website DO sell stuff in film BUT the 3kg bulk buy bags in the Goodness range, (their own range), always come in polythene bags. At least they used to. It’s a while since I used them so double check and please report back!

Their onward packaging is all recyclable or biodegradable.

Tesco In Store

Sell bulk pasta in polythene bags

N.B

Obviously this is not an ideal solution and certainly not a plastic free one, but it is the best I can come up with.

The best solution is of course  to buy loose then you could use your own  bags and create no waste at all. There are very few shops around that do sell loose but  you can find them here.