ouRKaoS,

I would totally eat Laser Avocado Doritos!

KeenFlame,

Or buy things without packaging when it is available like for avocados

cordlesslamp,

What? You guys wrapping avocado individually in a paper box? Why?

spittingimage,
@spittingimage@lemmy.world avatar

I dunno. Supermarkets near where I live sell avocados individually out of a big plastic tub under a sign saying AVOCADOS in case you can’t tell by looking.

blackn1ght,

I’ve never seen Tesco sell avocados like this before, normally they’re just loose in a box or something

thesmokingman,

I’ve never seen avocados in a box. Is that a common thing outside of the US?

_wizard,
@_wizard@lemmy.world avatar

Only when folks don’t believe their dollar spent affects things.

dependencyinjection,

Tesco is in the Uk so I would say so.

TDCN,
@TDCN@feddit.dk avatar

Come to Denmark and you’ll be seriously shocked by how much plastic is used for food packaging. It’s insane and I hate it so much.

thesmokingman,

The US has its own share of overly plastic packaging. I have occasionally seen individual vegetables shrinkwrapped. It’s just not the norm.

Feathercrown,

It happens to cucumbers relatively often but other veggies are just so weirdly shaped from a packaging standpoint that I don’t think they see it as worthwhile

eRac,

Cucumbers have much better shelf-life when shrink-wrapped. It ends up a debate of which is worse between food waste and plastic waste.

Feathercrown,

Oh really? I did not know that.

thesmokingman,

That was the one I was thinking of! I knew there was an organic veggie I regularly buy that’s wrapped.

AngryCommieKender,

I saw a pre-peeled orange for sale at a convenience store. It was wrapped in plastic wrap. Like, why‽‽‽ They literally grow their own wrapper…

Num10ck,

they could etch an advertisement on them to subsidize the cost.

100_kg_90_de_belin,

Or “you could have bought a house”

HootinNHollerin,

Fuck that

Kolanaki,
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

I feel like other grocers have already solved this problem by just not putting barcodes on the produce at all, and having the item manually punched in at the register while it’s on a scale (if it’s sold by weight and not per item).

AA5B,

You know what’s even less packaging? Not putting them in a box

Allero,

And not etching them as well.

Heavybell,
@Heavybell@lemmy.world avatar

Dunno why you got downvoted for this. I don’t see why they’d waste energy etching them when they can just label the tub they’re displayed in.

norimee,

They use this technique for a while now to mark organic fruit and veg in my (german) supermarket. Where they used packaging previously to distinguish them from regular, cheaper produce, they can omit that now. I like it.

SkaveRat,

Was about to say this. I was a bit surprised my ginger had a logo lasered into it the first time I saw this

qjkxbmwvz,

I once laser engraved “help I’m a banana” on a banana.

Death to non-compostable produce stickers. If lasers are what it takes, I’m all for it (not sure if that’s really what’s going on here though).

Sludgehammer,
@Sludgehammer@lemmy.world avatar

Death to non-compostable produce stickers.

God I hate those. They constantly end up in the compost despite my best efforts. God only knows how many of them are part of the soil in my garden now.

SkaveRat,

Archeologists of whatever species comes after us will be excited to learn about your food choices

myusernameis,

“Wow, they sure did eat a lot of stickers.”

threelonmusketeers,

“We postulate that the stickers may have had some spiritual or religious function, possibly in hopes of a good harvest.”

Twinkletoes,

Laser all the foods!

obinice,
@obinice@lemmy.world avatar

Ah yes, putting company logos directly onto our food. Just what I’ve always wanted.

qjkxbmwvz,

If it saves on waste, I say go for it — I hate removing those stupid stickers before throwing them in the compost.

Bananas take really well to laser engraving.

DarkThoughts,

Isn't that using way more energy..?

pennomi,

Energy and packaging are orthogonal concerns, but we should be aware of both of them.

DarkThoughts,

I don't see the point for either. It's an avocado.

qjkxbmwvz,

If it can replace the not-always-compostable stickers, I think it’s likely a good tradeoff.

BakerBagel,

They dont even nneed a sticker. At the self checkout at my store you just hit the “item lookup” and press “avocados” and thoe how many you have

DarkThoughts,

Replace? I've not seen stickers on any veggies or fruits in many many years.

GBU_28,

It’s a label with food in it now

Sludgehammer,
@Sludgehammer@lemmy.world avatar

Eh… I dunno. You’d be comparing the power consumption of the laser etching machine to the energy cost of shipping oil to make the plastic to make the label, shipping the raw plastic to a facility to actually print the labels, making the adhesive, then (probably) shipping the labels and adhesive to the packing plant and then adding in the power of the machinery to that actually sticks the label on.

I have no real numbers here but I could see zapping a avocado with a laser being the more energy efficient one.

DarkThoughts,

What label? I literally have not seen any sort of stickers on fruits & veggies in years. I only see packaging on softer produce that's prone to damage, quick to dry out, or harder to carry due to size. But again, it's an avocado.

LostXOR,

It likely only takes a few kilojoules to etch each avocado which is essentially nothing (for comparison, an avocado has around a megajoule of energy).

DarkThoughts,

Not sure where the energy of the avocado becomes relevant here. It won't be used to produce electricity.

LostXOR,

It's not really relevant, just a comparison to show how little energy that few kilojoules is.

Nikls94,

Would be cool to Lazer the Barcode on it

Chozo,

I believe this has been tried, but is difficult to do with most produce because the shape changes as the fruit ages on the shelf, making the barcodes unusable.

JoMiran,
@JoMiran@lemmy.ml avatar

Why are single avocados packaged in any way?

MeatPilot,
@MeatPilot@lemmy.world avatar

You know what other option is popular and much more common than packaging or etching. A tiny sticker, made out of recycled paper.

almar_quigley,

Better yet biodegradable paper and glue so you just throw all the shit in a compost bin!

garbagebagel, (edited )

The stickers are compostable and edible already

Editing to say I’m a liar I guess, since I couldn’t find proof to back this claim and have just been eating plastic sometimes.

usernamesAreTricky,

Where do you have that? I haven’t seen that in most places

garbagebagel,

Omg I guess I’ve been tricked. I had read that they were mostly in at least the US but now can’t find any evidence to support that. Gotta do my homework better I guess.

There’s one company that is making them that has customers all over north america but I guess it’s not as common as I thought. cbc.ca/…/plastic-sticker-produce-ban-alternative-…

Steve,

Rice paper, IIRC, with edible ink and glue

qjkxbmwvz,

I think a lot of produce uses some PVC material for labels.

Num10ck,

in the US i believe by law food stickers need to be edible.

qjkxbmwvz,

Yeah I was googling around and as far as I could tell they must not be harmful if accidentally consumed, but I think can still be made of plastic (which is…weird), and don’t need to be compostable:

modernfarmer.com/…/little-produce-stickers-are-bi…

nerc.org/…/produce-stickers-a-small-but-mighty-pr…

I could be wrong though, it’s kinda confusing as to the rules.

BakerBagel,

You dont even need the sticker. They are avocados and are distinct and easy for a cashier or moron at self checkout to figure out how to ring up.

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