Just get used to it

### Reader’s Letter to The Guardian, 13th February 2025 ###

Article with contributions by Adam Herriott, Mark Miodownik, Alison Colclough & Melanie Jaeger-Erben

Dear Editor,

I read Emma Beddington’s report on trying to do without single-use items for a month (The Guardian, 12th February 2025, link below) and greatly sympathise with her. Indeed, bravo to her for doing that!

It is nice to consider possible future technologies (e.g. new polymers) but surely our grandparents already had the tools required such as … reusable crockery (i.e. washing up), paper bags, returnable bottles (and jars!) and produce/veg sold unwrapped.

This is not rocket-science but my suspicion is that the real need for excessive packaging is so that items can be controlled by the supermarkets’ logistics and accounting systems. So switching from self-checkout to employing shop-assistants would help massively.

I strongly agree with Prof. Miodownik who states that if the driver were government legislation (i.e. regulation) people would grumble at first but “would just get used to it”. Indeed, in my view, it should not be a question of “consumer choice”: If plastic waste is a threat both to personal health and to the planet, then it should be tightly regulated.

We used strong regulation against smoking and to protect during the pandemic so why can’t we do it with other toxic threats to health? Especially this one!

PS: And let’s not forget that a even bigger threat is “invisible plastic” such as fluff from the washing of synthetic clothing and dust abraded from the tread of tyres. These go to make up 35% and 28% (respectively) of all ocean microplastic: Link to article below.

Yours,
Alan Mitcham

Link to original article: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/feb/12/my-no-plastic-life-i-tried-to-cut-out-single-use-items-for-a-month-and-it-almost-broke-me

Link to article on Ocean Microplastic: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jul/25/plastic-in-the-depths-how-pollution-took-over-our-oceans