After writing Wednesday’s post about deli counter plastic wrapping, I got thinking about pre-packaged cooked meat packaging and what a pain they are to reuse or recycle.

The ones I’m thinking of are used in the UK for sliced meats such as ham or roast beef/chicken, “continental sausages” (ie chorizo, salami etc), or wafer thin water-injected animal shavings (mmm!). The packaging has a semi-rigid shallow plastic tray and is covered with heat sealed plastic film. According to the misc pack of salami we have the in the fridge, the packing “currently isn’t recyclable (but because we care about the environment, we’re working on it)”. (Uh huh).

There is obviously a reduce option – although depending on the alternative provision, you might end up with as much plastic anyway.

Most packs only contain a single layer or a few slices max so the plastic tray is a little too shallow to use in the usual plastic tray ways – a saucer under plant pots, a paint palette for budding Monets – so are there any other ways they could be reused instead?

We’ve had an email from Iona:

The deli counter at Sainsburys insists on wrapping every item in its own yards of plastic wrap including multiple plastic sheets and then the plastic bag. Can they be recycled with carrier bags?

Plastic bags are usually made from polyethylene – which can be high-density (HDPE – resin code 2) or low-density (LDPE – resin code 4). I’m not certain – so please correct me if I’m wrong – but I believe the plastic bags from food counters are LDPE. LDPE is collected for recycling in many areas but you might want to check with your local council to see if you can add it to your doorstep recycling, or if you’re using a carrier bag drop at a supermarket, see if there is any information on the box about that sort of thing.

Before thinking about reuses and recycling ideas though, try to reduce if you can. Ask them to use a single sheet if they must use one at all or swap to non-deli items with more recyclable packaging – although that’s easier said than done because so many refrigerator items from supermarkets come in hard to recycle plastic. (Our little independent butcher in Leeds used as much plastic as any supermarket counter I’ve ever seen too.) I know some people (Mrs Green from My Zero Waste for example) take reusable tubs for the deli people to use instead – I suspect stores’ policies will vary on whether or not they let people do this but it doesn’t hurt to ask.

Has anyone any advice on getting the fresh food counter people to cut back on the amount of plastic or use tubs you’ve brought from home?

And are there any reuse ideas for plastic sheets etc?

(I hope everyone had a lovely long weekend btw – and for those who didn’t get yesterday as a holiday, sorry for rubbing it in that we all did!)

Linzi email us with a rather specific question:

I would love to know how to make those chickens made from plastic bags? I desperately want to to know how to make, I teach art and crafts and I know my students would love to make them.

I double-checked what she meant by “chickens from plastic bags” and she means these guys, which are apparently made by communities in deprived parts of South Africa.

My Google-fu is failing me to find either a how-to for those, or indeed any alternative chicken decorations that could be made from plastic bags. I’ve made some little tin chickens from old drinks cans and I’ve seen lots of chickens for dangling made from, essentially, a circle of fabric/crochet – but I can’t find the tutorials for those either now… One thing I did find was the cockerel made from plastic bottles which we featured a couple of years ago – but again, I can’t find any how-tos…

Anyone got any links bookmarked or are better at searching than me?

We’ve had an email from Jan C:

Is there anything I can do with carpet freshener bottles? The ones with the holes in the top for shaking. It’s too chemical perfumed for anything I want to shake out (like flour.)

There is a strong Reduce angle here – like many strongly perfumed items, you’re just introducing chemicals to mask the scent and it’s not only not cleaner, you’ve just introduced a whole new bunch of chemicals into your environment/lungs. (If you really want to use it, why not make your own from bicarb of soda? Add a few drops of a pleasant smelling essential oil if you want a scent – although you have to leave it to dry if you do that.)

There are other cleaning products with shakers too – bleach powder is one that immediately springs to mind and while it’s still really-bad-for-the-environment bleach, it’s arguably slightly greener to use powder than liquid bleach as the water has been shipped around considerably more efficiently (in pipes to the point of use rather than on a lorry).

As Jan says, you probably wouldn’t want to use such chemically-saturated/perfumed shakers for, say, dusting your cakes with icing sugar – but are there other reuses for them? If the holes are quite big, you could use it for lightly distributing rock salt/grit in the winter (rather than dumping it in large splats as is common when pouring from a bag). You could also use them for distributing grass seed.

Any other suggestions?

Cor, I worked hard in the garden yesterday – I was ill all last week so was a week behind on everything, and gardens don’t tolerate being a week behind at this time of year, especially since I’m already a couple of months behind on some things!

I think though, aside from a few things for successive planting or winter crops, I’ve planted just about everything I want to try this year – a new garden so lots of experimenting — and lots of empty seed packets in my seed box.

Obviously they’re just paper so could go in our recycling bin but I thought it might be interesting to hear if anyone uses them for anything creative – or to help garden organisation/labelling.

Any suggestions?

(CCA photo by LollyKnit)