I’m not a fan of selling meats and certain perishable dairy products without plastic. I know the vegans have an easy response to this, but let me beg the question on that.
Glass is a great option for many things, but it would significantly raise the prices of certain foods like premade stock which are currently shipped in something like a tetrapak cardboard/plastic hybrid due to weight.
You could likely use a resin to replace the plastic in that sort of packaging, like they use resins instead of plastic for can liners, but I don’t know if epoxy is really an improvement from either a biological (your body sure won’t break it down and better than plastic) or ecological standpoint.
Meat was sold in wax paper (butcher paper) for years before switching to plastic. Yes, plastic is superior in pretty much every non-environmental aspect, but waxed paper is hardly an impossible leap. Many smaller shops still use it today.
Beer is sold in both cans and glass bottles, while still remaining cheaper than water in many places. How is beer able to remain cheap in a glass bottle but premade soup stock would not? Yes, glass bottle would increase shipping costs due to volume/weight/breakage, but I think the significance of this is greatly overstated.
If beer can stay out of a plastic bottle while remaining cheap the other liquids can as well.
The epoxy used in cans (and inside paper containers) may not be any better for you but it would be a enormous decrease in quantity of plastic compared to pure plastic containers.
Humorously, waxed paper is generally a modified parrafin, a petroleum product that often contains some plastic to change how it polymerizes. Overall not much better than the tetrapaks.
I’m not a fan of selling meats and certain perishable dairy products without plastic. I know the vegans have an easy response to this, but let me beg the question on that.
Glass is a great option for many things, but it would significantly raise the prices of certain foods like premade stock which are currently shipped in something like a tetrapak cardboard/plastic hybrid due to weight.
You could likely use a resin to replace the plastic in that sort of packaging, like they use resins instead of plastic for can liners, but I don’t know if epoxy is really an improvement from either a biological (your body sure won’t break it down and better than plastic) or ecological standpoint.
Meat was sold in wax paper (butcher paper) for years before switching to plastic. Yes, plastic is superior in pretty much every non-environmental aspect, but waxed paper is hardly an impossible leap. Many smaller shops still use it today.
Beer is sold in both cans and glass bottles, while still remaining cheaper than water in many places. How is beer able to remain cheap in a glass bottle but premade soup stock would not? Yes, glass bottle would increase shipping costs due to volume/weight/breakage, but I think the significance of this is greatly overstated.
If beer can stay out of a plastic bottle while remaining cheap the other liquids can as well.
The epoxy used in cans (and inside paper containers) may not be any better for you but it would be a enormous decrease in quantity of plastic compared to pure plastic containers.
Humorously, waxed paper is generally a modified parrafin, a petroleum product that often contains some plastic to change how it polymerizes. Overall not much better than the tetrapaks.
You could use a plant based wax though.
Before paraffin, what did they use?
we probably need to transition to bringing our own reusable packaging/bottling for that stuff.
Fun fact, soda cans made of aluminum actually have a plastic lining!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1pB6O6AYMU