We know what a lot of you Pandas are like. You care about Mother Earth and its delicious bamboo groves, lush forests, and comfy nooks and crannies where you can nap. So you recycle. You also cycle to work instead of driving your Pandamobile. And you buy products that are more eco-friendly and use less plastic. Because every little step really does matter.
But let’s face it, if you’re like us, sometimes when you walk into a grocery store you might lose hope when you spot just how much unnecessary packaging is used to pack some food products. And by unnecessary packaging, we mean U n N e C e S s A r Y to the point that you feel all of your environmentally friendly actions suddenly mean very little when faced with systemic issues on an industrial scale.
We wanted to show you just how plastically insane things can get, so our bamboo-loving Bored Panda team hiked all through the internet wilds to bring you the most egregious examples of wasteful food packaging. Have a scroll down below, upvote the pics that made you want to throw your recycling bin at somebody, and let us know how you feel about all of this plastic waste in the comments.
#1 Replacing The Egg Shell With More Plastic To Go Into The Ocean
Image credits: ShinigamiDady
#2 What Can You Even Make With 1 Tomato?? The Styrofoam Bedding
Image credits: plasticobsessedjapan
#3 Hong Kong Supermarket Selling Individually Plastic Wrapped And Boxed Strawberry. For $21. One Strawberry
Image credits: Ree81
Setting aside the practical long-term economic and ecological worries that we have for our own survival, we have to realize that our attitudes toward our environment, plastic pollution, and consumption reflect who we are inside.
Not to sound too cheesy (don’t worry, it’s vegan), but the fight for a clean and healthy planet is also a fight for our very souls. We can either live wastefully, destroying everything around us for short-term pleasure and profit or we can choose to live with wisdom, respecting our role as a part of nature. Now, this certainly doesn’t mean living as ascetically as a monk would, but it doesn’t hurt to have a more minimalist outlook to counter the throwaway society that we live in.
#4 If Only Oranges Came With Their Own Protective Packaging So We Didn't Have To Use Plastic
Image credits: c08306834
#5 Ridiculously Redundant Over-Packaging
Image credits: NYhook
#6 The Three Layers Of Plastic Protection For These Oranges. How Is This Even Allowed?
Image credits: j_fisher85
Single-use plastics currently account for more than a third of all plastics produced each year. What’s more, 98 percent of single-use plastics are manufactured from fossil fuels. Tackling this issue, then, is a vital part of protecting our environment and our future. The BBC reports that an analysis of the business network behind plastic production found that a mere 20 companies are the source of more than half of all the single-use plastic items that are thrown away all over the world.
#7 Harry & David Strawberries
Image credits: socialcookingclub.niti
#8 Asparagus Water???
Image credits: urbanearthlovers
#9 Looks Like Some People Are Still Grapeling With Their New Year's Resolutions
Image credits: pointless_packaging
“Plastic bottles, food packages, and bags are among billions of items that are used once and then thrown away, often ending up in the oceans,” the BBC writes about the impact these companies, the largest producer of single-use plastic of which is ExxonMobil, have on the world.
#10 Tell Me Jamaica Ain't Serious Lmfao
Image credits: Brian_ThaLion
#11 My Wife Wanted Peeled Garlic. They Peeled, Then Individually Wrapped Them
Image credits: kuahara
#12 Such A Waste Of Plastic
Image credits: Alexii2
According to the research, conducted among others by the London School of Economics, part of the increase in single-use plastic waste is due to the Covid-19 pandemic, with protective and medical equipment having to be discarded for health and safety reasons.
#13 Packaged Chopped Parsley
Image credits: urbanearthlovers
#14 This Individually Packaged Slice Of Whole Wheat Bread
Image credits: bri_tek15
#15 This Is Some Next Level Laziness
Image credits: goldfishstick
The United Kingdom is in fourth place in its plastic consumption, with each citizen generating over 40 kilograms of single-use plastic waste per year. Australia is in first place, meanwhile, the United States stands in second place.
#16 Finally A Way To Buy Apples And Add Plastic To Landfills And Oceans
Image credits: fjbruzr
#17 These Peeled Avocados Wrapped In Plastic
Image credits: averhaegen
#18 I Can’t Even Imagine How Much Plastic Waste Is Just Sitting In Landfills Because Of Pointless Things Like This
Image credits: _johnfromtheblock_
Essentially, what the report showed is that the future of the plastic waste crisis lies in the hands of a handful of companies. Therefore change that affects our environment on a global scale ought to start from there.
#19 When Orange Peel Is Replaced With Plastic
Image credits: deamills94
#20 The Most Ridiculous Part About Living In Japan: Plastic Everywhere!
Image credits: thesimpleenvironmentalist
#21 Are We Happy There Is A Healthy Choice On Offer, Or Is This A Waste Of Plastic?
Image credits: pointless_packaging
“It's an extraordinary point of leverage for regulators, for finance institutions, to influence them in order that rather than producing from fossil fuels, they produce plastic that's recycled,” said Dominic Charles, the Minderoo Foundation’s director of finance and transparency. The Minderoo Foundation published the research findings.
"We need to go after the tap, to turn off the tap of fossil fuel plastics and we need to create plastics from recycled material,” Charles from the Minderoo Foundation said.
#22 Cannot Beleaf This From M&s
Image credits: pointless_packaging
#23 What A Waste
Image credits: urbanearthlovers
#24 Individually Wrapped Peppers That Are Used For Salad And Pre Cut Into 1/4s Just To Have To Be Cut Again Into Smaller Pieces
Image credits: 6packobeer
In short, there’s a need to put a stop to the production of single-use plastics from non-recyclable materials, in order to counteract the report’s grim prognosis: within the next 5 years, plastic production is set to expand by a whopping 30 percent.
#25 This Is So Wasteful And Just Ridiculous
Image credits: 6packobeerchloeskyebob
#26 Plastic Has To Removed From Every Single Mini Sausage Before Cooking
Image credits: UndocumentedTuesday
#27 Cauliflower And Broccoli Nested On A Single Use Plastic Tray Wrapped In Pointless Plastic Wrap
Image credits: giorgialbi
#28 Individually Wrapped Grapes In Japan
Image credits: momonomo99
#29 Just A Single Egg In A Plastic Cage
Image credits: plasticobsessedjapan
#30 Carrefour Italia More Than Halving Their Passion For The Environment
Image credits: pointless_packaging
#31 These Individually Wrapped 3-Inch Slices Of Watermelon
Image credits: climbingup_thewalls
#32 This Useless Packaging / Waste Of Plastic
Image credits: ClamScience
#33 Your Coke Needs That Plastic
Image credits: Ui_Hirasawa
#34 Pre Peeled Bananas In Plastic. There Is So Much Wrong With This!!
Image credits: lillys_plastic_pickup
#35 A Coconut Wrapped In Non Recyclable Plastic Packaging. Wtf! A Coconut Is Already Packaged. Shame On Tesco UK
Image credits: S2Pac
#36 Peeled, Packaged And Even Comes With Its Own Forks
Image credits: pointless_packaging
#37 Wasteful Packaging At Walmart
Image credits: jadedtortoise
#38 The Way My School Packages Chips
Image credits: scratchyjoshy
#39 Wouldn't It Be Nice If Fruit Like Bananas Had Their Own Natural Packaging To Help Reduce Plastic Pollution?
Image credits: jimmmUK
#40 This Complete Waste Of Packaging
Image credits: GildedNarrative
#41 Spraying Water Over Vegetables Wrapped In Plastic, Complete Waste
Image credits: ChiefChair
#42 Individually Wrapped Gummy Bears
Image credits: OniTale
#43 My Hellofresh Meal Kit Came With 4 Individually Bagged Carrots And A Bagged Slice Of Bread
Image credits: mrFLONK
#44 A Packaged Lemon, With The Slogan "Waste Less, Enjoy More"
Image credits: ReminiscentSnake
#45 Well This Packaging Is Pointless
Image credits: Beatlemaniac9
#46 How Extra Do You Need To Be To Buy Individual Shallot And Garlic Bulbs In Boxes Instead Of Loose?
Image credits: itsfelyn
#47 Plastic Doesn’t Get Much More Pointless Than This
Image credits: dont_plasticipate
#48 It Makes Me Want To Cry!
Image credits: pointless_packaging_cambodia
#49 Chipotle Now Waste More Plastic To Package Their Lemons
Image credits: msorensic
#50 Wrapping Individual Vegetables In Plastic! Actually Extremely Infuriating
Image credits: BitFlow7
#51 Thick Plastic Bag For A Quartered Watermelon. For Convenience
Image credits: oreece29
#52 Wtf Is The Point Of Wrapping Potatoes In Plastic! Please Just Buy The Ones Right Next To These Not In Plastic
Image credits: misspixiewitch
#53 Destroying The Planet One Apple At A Time
Image credits: mattyfatty1
#54 Too Bad Corn Doesn't Come In Some Sort Of Biodegradable Packaging
Image credits: Sue204
#55 If Only This Mango Had Some Sort Of Natural Packaging
Image credits: whats_a_potato
#56 The Amount Of Plastic Mcdonalds Uses For Two Pieces Of Bacon
Image credits: mom0367
#57 It's Getting Hot In Here, So Take Off All Your Cloves
Image credits: pointless_packaging
#58 If Only Bananas Had Robust, Natural, Bio-Degradable Packaging Of Their Own. Some Sort Of Peelable Skin, Perhaps
Image credits: thenamenononehas
#59 Vegetable Packaging Is Getting Out Of Hand
Image credits: Dyslexicglove
#60 Not The Sort Of Limelight Costcutter Are After But They Can Have It Anyway
Image credits: pointless_packaging
#61 Woolworths: “We’re Going Plastic Bag Free!” - Also Woolworths
Image credits: reddit.com
#62 This Is Absolutely Utterly Unnecessary! That’s Pure Waste! What’s Wrong With A Cardboard Box!? A Paper Bag!?
Image credits: 2minbeachclean
#63 Why? Why Is This Necessary For Garlic?
Image credits: hinkle311
#64 Plastic Might Sometimes Be The Best Packaging Option But M&s Could At Least Fillet
Image credits: pointless_packaging
#65 Who Wants Their Peaches Wrapped In Wasteful Plastic So You Can’t Tell If They Are Ripe Or Not?
Image credits: drKRB
#66 Plasticomania - Apples Packaging
Image credits: AndBobIsYourUncle
#67 M&s What Do You Have To Say About This Product? It Doesn’t Really Fit In With You Plastic Reduction Policy Does It?
Image credits: sustainablenantwich
#68 Hmm It Seems Mindful Chef UK Are Eggnoring The Climate Crisis
Image credits: pointless_packaging
#69 Can’t Be Lemongrassed With This
Image credits: pointless_packaging
#70 The Way This Company Wastes Plastic By Individually Packing Cheese
Image credits: -_mo_-
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