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Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Green Absurd Plastic Wrapped Object of the Day: Trader Joes Bell Peppers

Posted by Sarah Mirk on Wed, Mar 16, 2011 at 1:59 PM

Two weeks ago it was Del Monte bananas, last week it was QFC microwave ready potatoes, today it's Trader Joes bell peppers!

Clearly, the plastic-wrapped peppers on the bottom are superior to the naked ones above. They're also cheaper by about a quarter, encouraging people to go for the product that includes plastic wrap.

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In other bad news, have you seen the fear-mongering web ads that the pro-plastic bag lobby has been running all over the place (including here)? The ads ask, "Is your bag safe?" and reference studies that show canvas bags collect bacteria if people never wash them (screenshot here). It's completely hypocritical, setting up plastic bags as the "clean" option for shoppers, but maybe there's some segment of the population that would rather keep the ocean polluted with plastic than launder their damn tote bags once in a while.

In actually good news, Pepsi is planning to switch to no-plastic bottles! According to their vice president, "The bottle is made from switch grass, pine bark, corn husks and other materials. Ultimately, Pepsi plans to also use orange peels, oat hulls, potato scraps and other leftovers from its food business." That sounds like something a hippie living in an eco-friendly cob hut would suggest, so it's cool to see a major corporation switch to non-petroleum based packaging on such a big scale.

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