Gaaah!

[wiseheart]

We had our regularly scheduled cleaning frenzy today. After that, I went to Lidl to buy lots of ginger ale and mineral water before they'd switch to the obligatory, insanely complicated Pfandflasche system that is supposed to be better for the environment.

Why that would be so since we collect plastic bottles selectively already, and the new system includes an automaton that takes them in (but only if they aren't creased in any way, otherwise you can forget your return money), then prints a boon, which you then can use at the next food shopping round (no, they won't actually give you money back) is beyond me. Such a machine uses energy, printing the boon uses paper and energy, so I don't think the new system would be very environmental-friendly after all. It will force people to buy their food in the same supermarket, though, so perhaps that's the basic idea. It will be a lot of hassle - either I'll have to run back to the supermarket with every single bottle or give up using the kitchen in the future, as the bottles will take up all free space.

You know, back in the Stone Age when mammoths were roaming the Great Hungarian Lowlands, there was such a thing as a soda bottle. You could buy little CO2 packs, screw them onto the bottle and had bubbly water to drink. The empty packs you could take back to the grocery shop and exchange for full ones, for a small price. They would then be refilled and resealed. It was a cheap and simple system, a win-win situation for everyone involved. Then these things simply disappeared, making place for the bottled stuff that was several magnitudes more expensive and produced lots of plastic garbage. And now we have to pay the price again, to get rid of the plastic we didn't even want in the first place. *đĐ|#&łß¤*!!!!! (insert swear words of your choice)


In any case, I was pretty drained after all this, but even so I worked a bit on the Christmas quiet book. A bit being the key word here. I'm in the process of sewing the corresponding pages together with blanket stitch. Today I made one half of Page 2 (there are 4 altogether) before giving up and taking a nap. Then I called H. to ask about Little Emma (she's much better and went to the Kindergarten today), and then my friend Evie. And now I'm waiting for the new season of the Great Canadian Baking Show to start.

Comments

[meathiel]

We've had the Pfand for ages and I actually think it's pretty neat and a good system.
Here you can bring Aldi bottles to Lidl or other stores and vice versa and it usually works.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Well, I'll have to take your word for it. To me it seems insanely complicated and a lot of bother.

[chocolate-frapp.livejournal.com]

I remember returnable bottles! I thought those were better for the environment.

[adafrog.livejournal.com]

How frustrating.

[elwenlj.livejournal.com]

That does sound a fussy system for recycling. So many recycling initiatives seem to assume that everyone has a car, and can transport stuff. At the moment, our recycling is collected twice a month, but I do wonder if that will change.

[noadvertising.livejournal.com]

To me this system is quite okay- no more bottles abandoned in the wilde. In Germany you do not have to bring them back to the shop where you have bought them, but can put them into the automaton of the shop, where you prefer to spend your money.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Definitely!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

My problem with the system is that I don't have the frigging space to collect the bottles intact. With the recycling bin I could crease them and stuff them into a bag and have several weeks' worth of Plastikmüll stored in a space of about half a square metre. I can spare half a square metre in the kitchen, but absolute no square millimetre more!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Not to mention the lack of storage space in a flat that is 53 square metres, including the balcony!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

It is! I am all for recycling and protecting the environment, and I've done the selecting your garbage thing for decades, but I don't have the space for this!

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

We are requested to squash ours like that before they are recycled. Although there is no system here to get shopping credit for them.

You could almost do with a Soda Stream, but then it would take up space itself and, after 27 years living in our previous house where the kitchen was 2m by 2.5m and also had the back door opening from it, I fully understand the 'space cost' that needs to be taken into account for anything kitchen related.

[mirasaui.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear little Emma is better! Crazy about the plastic bottle fiasco.