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Spain To Ban Sale of Fruit and Vegetables in Plastic Wrapping From 2023 (elpais.com) 96

Posted by msmash from the up-next dept.
The sale of fruit and vegetables in plastic wrapping will be prohibited in Spain's supermarkets and grocery stores starting in 2023. From a report: This is one of the measures in a decree being drafted by the Ministry for Ecological Transition, according to sources familiar with the initiative. The new regulation also contains measures to encourage the purchase of loose, unpackaged produce and use of non-bottled water. The ban on fruit and vegetable packaging will apply to produce weighing under 1.5 kilograms, following similar legislation in France, where it will go into effect next year. The Spanish executive wants to "fight the overuse of packaging in the most effective way," said a ministry spokesperson. The same source said that plastic pollution "has exceeded all limits." Environmental groups in Spain and abroad, including Greenpeace, have been campaigning for years to stop greengrocers and large supermarkets alike from wrapping fresh produce in layers of plastic.

The ministry headed by Teresa Ribera has held meetings with leading business associations and environmental groups to share some of the main guidelines contained in the draft decree, which seeks to incorporate European Union norms to Spain's legislation. The list of products included in the new regulations will be set by the Spanish Food Safety and Nutrition Agency. Those "at risk of deteriorating when sold loose" will be left out of the list, according to available information. Julio Barea of Greenpeace said he agrees with the ban but added that it is important to see "how it will be applied" in the end. Barea feels the government, led by a center-left coalition of the Socialist Party (PSOE) and leftist Unidas Podemos, is not moving fast enough "to radically end the flow of plastic pollution."
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Spain To Ban Sale of Fruit and Vegetables in Plastic Wrapping From 2023 More

Spain To Ban Sale of Fruit and Vegetables in Plastic Wrapping From 2023

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  • It's really weird that Europe has this problem. I mean, the US really doesn't have this one, you might find a large quantity of fruit in a plastic bag (grapes come to mind) but in general fruits and veggies are sold unpackaged.

    • To be fair, while I try to make the ecological choices, I do often when I am in the Produce section, I will often opt for the prepackaged bags of fruits, including Apples, Oranges, Peaches and plumbs. Mostly due to convince as they are preweighed and priced, and not manhandled by many other people trying to find the best fruit.

      However if I do pick from the fruits and veggies that are not wrapped, I will go get a plastic bag and put them in them.

    • And when shopping, the customer takes the unpackaged fruit and places it in a plastic bag. Paper bags would work as an alternative, but they aren't a perfect alternative. It will be interesting to see what solutions eventually get adopted.

      We use reusable mesh bags. At least, I do. When my wife goes shopping she does what is most convenient. So I look forward to similar laws becoming the norm everywhere.

    • Ever gone to CostCow and seen apples, mangoes, or pears in a giant plastic "blister pack?"

      • I haven't. There's only one Costco in town, and it's on the other side of town from me.

        And if they do that, I'm even less likely to ever go. What a stupid waste.

      • True. I was thinking about that. I often shop for produce at regular grocers as buying many of those items at costco is stupid for that reason. There are a few good deals there with less or the same plastic depending on how much you would buy at a grocers. Until grocers start using paper bags.

    • Re:Weird that Europe has this problem (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Joce640k ( 829181 ) on Thursday September 23, 2021 @10:16AM (#61824297) Homepage

      It's really weird that Europe has this problem. I mean, the US really doesn't have this one, you might find a large quantity of fruit in a plastic bag (grapes come to mind) but in general fruits and veggies are sold unpackaged.

      Here in Spain we have a mixture. There's raw fruit/veggies that you take to the checkout to be weighed and also lots of "convenience" fruit veggies that's pre-peeled and in a plastic bag.

      Also lots of tiny salads which come in a plastic container with a plastic sachet of "salsa" and a plastic fork to eat it with. I hope they ban those, too.

    • No, in the US, the problem is just transferred. Instead of buying produce pre-packaged, US consumers put produce in plastic bags at the store. It is a different kind of plastic but plastic none the less.
    • Trader Joe's doesn't have scales at their checkout counters, so their produce is either sold by the piece (bananas, apples, etc.) or in trays with plastic shrinkwrap or in clamshells.
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Teun ( 17872 )
      To an extend you are right.
      Someone convinced the European supermarkets produce sells better when packed in plastic.
      Knowing about this upcoming legislation companies have been working on alternatives and I've recently seen the first squashes marked with price and a barcode etched in the skin with a laser.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      It's really weird that Europe has this problem. I mean, the US really doesn't have this one, you might find a large quantity of fruit in a plastic bag (grapes come to mind) but in general fruits and veggies are sold unpackaged.

      Happens in North America as well to a lesser extent.

      You might remember seeing pre-cut avocados, for example. But individually wrapped fruit is more of a rarity. I think in Canada the only thing that is wrapped all the way and has been for decades was cucumbers.

      But I've seen packaged t

  • What about Prepared fruit and vegetables? (Score:3)

    by jellomizer ( 103300 ) on Thursday September 23, 2021 @09:56AM (#61824159)

    Sure my Apples, Oranges, Carrots, Celery, and potatoes don't need packaging.
    However how about cherries, green beans, pre-cut vegetables...
    Sure they don't need to be plastic, as a lot of them can be in recycled paper baskets, But Plastic itself isn't the enemy, it is just the overuse of it.

    • ^ This.

      There are some studies on this (my googlefu is failing me) where they examine the CO2 output of wrapped and non-wrapped veggies. The wrapped veggies degrade slower, meaning there is less food going to the dump. All biological matter eventually degrades and while it does so, it emits gasses. The plastic wrapping, for cucumbers as an example, means they stay on the shelves longer, leading to less need to transport new food to replace it and also lasting longer for consumption.

      So, this is a very complic

  • Just the wrap, or the hard containers too? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by gurps_npc ( 621217 ) on Thursday September 23, 2021 @09:59AM (#61824175) Homepage

    The idiots that wrap single potatoes in plastic are pretty horrific.

    But the absolute worst are the morons that think oranges and bananas, two fruits with stronger natural skins that plastic wrap, need to be put into plastic wrap.

    But the real problem is there are 7 types of plastic but only two are really recyclable. #1 and #2 (PET - soda bottle plastic and HDPE - milk jug plastic) are the only ones that have any real recylability. #3 (PVC - construction plastic) has potential, but basically, it is thrown away.

    If you truly want to make a difference just put a deposit on type 3 and high taxes on plastic types 4-7.

    • Re:Just the wrap, or the hard containers too? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by SchroedingersCat ( 583063 ) on Thursday September 23, 2021 @10:19AM (#61824311)
      The real problem are the people who refer to others as "idiots" and "morons" on public forum while trying to make their point across.

    • Re:Just the wrap, or the hard containers too? (Score:5, Informative)

      by garett_spencley ( 193892 ) on Thursday September 23, 2021 @10:56AM (#61824487) Journal

      But the absolute worst are the morons that think oranges and bananas, two fruits with stronger natural skins that plastic wrap, need to be put into plastic wrap.

      You're assuming that the reason they package them in plastic is to prevent damage to the fruit from direct contact.

      While I can't know for certain why it is done in every case, one potential alternative reason is to contain the ethylene gas (ripening hormone) that the fruit emit which acts as a signal to other fruit to begin the ripening process. When you've got a large volume of inventory that needs to be stored for a period of time (and "period of time" here could be merely days), that inventory can spoil quickly due to a few over-ripe or rotten items in the lot. The old saying "one bad apple spoils the bunch" is not just a figure of speech.

    • oh so you live in your mom's basement and don't shop for the food? Maybe people don't want a house full of fruit flies or ants, or they want their greenish bananas to ripen in reasonable time for use.

      whining manlette calling names, you're funny kid.

  • Does anyone remember (Score:3)

    by bobstreo ( 1320787 ) on Thursday September 23, 2021 @10:00AM (#61824193)

    When paper bags were replaced by plastic bags, and everyone said how ecologically friendly it was?

    I guess we've pretty much gone full circle now.

    When I grab some non-packaged fruit or vegetables they're usually pretty wet from the misters in the produce area.

    If I have to use non-plastic storage to get them out of the store, they better not have fallen apart before I get them home.

    • It is a simple matter of marketing: Save the trees - use plastic wrap vs Save the prairies - use paper wrap.
    • Actually plastic bags can be pretty ecologically friendly - if people reused them instead of throwing them away. Even "single-use" bags can be used multiple times.

    • This part is easy— buy the reusable fruit bags. I am not sure what a good solution for things like blueberries, raspberries and strawberries is though. They do not handle well in bulk.

  • I'm all for this in principle. I cringe every time I see apples sold in plastic clamshell packaging.

    It will be interesting to see how this is implemented. Will cardboard packaging replace the plastic resulting in an overall increase in trash volume? Will customers be forced to purchase reusable carriers that inevitably get lost or forgotten? Or most likely, will they be displayed loose only to be packed into plastic shopping bags by the cashier?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Chrisq ( 894406 )
      This is a good point, any rules like this need to be reviewed when we have data on the impact. If not we could end up with things like the UK ban on single use shopping bags, which has ended up with more plastic being thrown away because a significant number of shoppers are using the thicker multi-use bags as ingle-use ones, and people buying more bin liners, etc. as they used to reuse the "single use" bags.

  • How can they do this? (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    How can they do this? it's almost as though they have sovereignty but we know from Farage and co. that as EU members they can't have.

  • In North America there is a definite shift where companies are selling sliced meats that would previously be sold at a deli counter, wrapped in paper, in heavy plastic packages. Even when they would put the meat in plastic, the plastic was much less/lighter than the packages they sell on the shelf now.

  • I hope you don't mind paying more for food? (Score:3)

    by argStyopa ( 232550 ) on Thursday September 23, 2021 @11:31AM (#61824679) Journal

    I get it. We demonize plastic now.
    But understand that there were solid, legitimate, logical reasons plastic is chosen as a packaging material. It is not some evil plastic cartel 'forcing' people to use plastic.

    They boil down to:
    - it's cheap
    - it's strong (importantly, strong in all directions and when folded/bent/curved/creased)
    - it's liquid-resistant
    - it's non-organic so the lot-to-lot variations are smaller, allowing finer-tolerance (ie faster = cheaper) production processes at all stages from manufacturing to printing to forming

    Understand that it's NOT just the cost of the packaging. In fact, packaging now is generally so cheap, it's about avoiding costs elsewhere - in transit, spoilage, or customer wastage. This last is one people never think about: if you have 5 packages of coffee on the shelf, and one is /slightly/ but visibly faded, customers assume that one is old, bad, whatever and WON'T BUY IT. That package of perfectly-good coffee you might as well have just thrown in the dumpster because it will sit there, with replacements constantly shelved around it, until it expires and goes into the garbage.

    Food packaging in particular has massive technical demands as far as liquid/grease resistance (from the packaged article, or from external sources), sunlight blocking to prevent spoilage, and clarity of print (for all that consumer info that is required on food articles now). Plastics, in one form or another, generally meet these EFFORTLESSLY. Papers struggle, or require complex expensive, finicky constructions (that, being honest, usually require layers of plastic either as functional or binder-layers because how else are you going to adhere alu-foil to paper?) to reach comparable performance - generally sacrificing at least one.

    All of this means MORE expensive packaging, MORE wastage, MORE spoilage, MORE transport damage = higher prices.

    I know some people seem to have this Thoreauian Utopia in their heads where everyone is going to live in the little village and trot down the street to buy their fresh fruits and veg from the corner vendor every day.
    That's not a world of 7.5bn people. You have two choices to get that: either live in the fantastically rich West, or be from a very poor country with no infrastructure where your only choice is to buy grungy yams and a fly-covered chicken carcass from the local farmer because that's all he's got to sell you. Hopefully.

    My company, to be clear, is a PAPER packaging company. We will do nothing but benefit by this ruling. Profits ahoy! But understand that a decade ago we tried promoting paper as a sustainable and ULTIMATELY better alternative packaging of all sorts and the market - largely - told us to fuck off, they wanted better engineered plastics.

    • Plastic replaced paper because it was cheaper, and it was cheaper because making paper is energy intensive. And you can't move trees to the paper mill by pipeline.

      The upside of paper is it burns nicely during combustion season, which starts in about a month.

      Of course if you have a waste to energy plant with a scrubber you can burn both without issue.

  • Has to start somewhere. We need to all pay attention to this kind of thing... it's easy to get in bad habits.

  • Plastic wrap will switch to some paper/wood product that is transparent. We have automatic processing of fruits and vegetables, from picking, cleaning, eliminating bruises, weighing and packaging. I am not a chemist, but cellophane seems to be the alternative to plastic. It is, I presume, easily bio degradable in weeks, not years.

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