Too Much Plastic!
I was recently at Sobeys buying some groceries which included chicken breast and ground beef. At the till, the cashier went to individually bag the two different kinds of delicious meat before putting them in a larger bag that had an assortment of other groceries. I said to her “You could probably just toss those into a bag with everything else.” to which she replied “I can’t, not supposed to.”
My question is, what could really happen if meat was not individually bagged? I get that the packaging for the meat might come loose and leak, but how likely is that? I have never had an issue before with leaky meat packaging, and the only other things often put into a bag with meat are cereal boxes, milk containers, canned goods, or maybe fruits and vegetables that generally have their own individual bags anyway.
My rational is that when I go home, I immediately take the meat out of the bags and put it in the freezer. Then what? The bags are too small to really do anything else with, so they just end up being trashed. I am sure mostly everyone else is of fairly like mind. Obviously putting food in the same bag as rat poison is a little extreme, but what is wrong with all perishable food in one bag, boxed or canned foods in another, and cleaners/deodorants in another. I would at least like the choice to say no to wasting more bags than necessary…
February 1st, 2010 at 2:08 PM
Vaughn says:
To my knowledge, Sobey’s is the only place to do this. Weirdly enough, Sobey’s also seems to have the best meat packaging as well – reducing the risk of leakage/cross-contamination, so I don’t think it’s even necessary. It probably is to promote their image of “service/freshness/cleanliness” more than anything.
February 1st, 2010 at 3:40 PM
Taylor says:
I agree that it is a plastic wasting practice, but I often get meat that leaks. In fact just last week I had a package of pork chops that leaked in my fridge. Sobeys does have really good meat packaging though, in fact trying to get into the packages is sometimes a little difficult. They are probably the one grocery store that really has no need to to do this. However, I would rather have the confidence that I am not going to get food poisoning instead of running the risk of contaminating my other food. So Sean, I am not of “fairly like mind”.
February 1st, 2010 at 3:54 PM
Sean says:
I mostly meant fairly like minded on the uselessness of the small bags that are left over after you put the meat into the fridge. Can’t use them for anything! I use regular grocery bags for the garbage can in my room, but little ones are useless.
February 2nd, 2010 at 11:39 AM
Vaughn says:
In related news:
http://www.medicinehatnews.com/story/time-ban-plastic-bag
February 2nd, 2010 at 11:45 AM
Dusty says:
On banning plastic bags …
I could imagine how frustrated I’d be if I used plastic bags and people wanted to “ban” it. Kind of like how smoking most anywhere ever is banned.
But I use canvas bags .. 95% of the time, the 5% is for when I intended on using no bag and the person just gave me one anyway. So I’m already on that side of the fence, I think canvas bags are great. People just have a hard time remembering to bring them, easiest thing to do is just keep them in your trunk.
February 2nd, 2010 at 10:59 PM
Sean says:
“Krickhahn added that while the big retailers would like to eliminate plastic bags, none of them want to be first to do it for fear of driving customers to their competition.”
As if a place like Walmart needs to worry about driving business away from them…
February 18th, 2010 at 9:26 AM
laws jonson says:
i like that this is an entire conversation about meat packaging… i’m so happy right now *tears up*