General Chat

In this day & age when we are told to reuse, reduce & recycle can someone explain why it is that take aways such as chinese are still using plastic rectangular boxes and plastic lids to put the take aways in.
Other places I have used, use the foil trays with cardboard lids, so how are they allowed to carry on using the plastic?

I did at one time soak them in very hot soapy water in the hope that i could reuse them in my cupboards. However even after washing in hot water, they still had a smell of prawns etc from the take away so could not use them and had to throw them away.
I think what a waste, especially as in my last order we had at least 5 of these plastic boxes!

Anyone else have a indian or chinese that use plastic boxes for take aways?

Florence in the hebrides

We haven't had an Indian takeaway but they Chinese takeaways we use have foil boxes with plastic see through lids, which we can and do reuse then recycle.

Haven't had a take-away for ages, so I don't know what they use now, but we frequently use and reuse plastic containers from previous meals.
I've never had any problem getting them clean, but nobody has prawns here.

When I had a surplus of boxes, the primary school were grateful for them.

We don't have takeaways very often either, but we reuse them to freeze left overs, then as storage trays like draws in cupboards etc then after a very long time they end up in recycle bins.

RTR my question isnt about PFAS, but merely why some take away businesses are not using other forms of cartons such as foil instead of plastic.

And if these PFAS are so harmful, why are they allowed in so many products? Surely, they would be illegal?

If you want to discuss the use of PFAS then put up a separate thread perhaps.

Florence in the hebrides

I want to know why it is still legal to sell water in single use bottles which end up being dropped at the roadside and washed into rivers and ultimately the ocean. Or else binned and end up in landfill decaying for the next half a millenium.

I have one solid plastic bottle which gets washed out when empty and refilled from the tap. A metal one would be just as good. Either can be recycled if they should ever reach the end of their life.

And Florences point was that she didn’t want her thread taken over by the pros and cons of PFAS.

Sorry to hi Jack your thread Florence, but I just would like to make this point, I have been buying the same brand of loose tea for many many years and in all that time the packaging is "not yet recycled" why have they not changed their packaging to recyclable in more recent times?

I re use the take away containers for freezer storage..

I'm 83 ..sod the pfas

Forty years ago I recall a company named BX Plastics in Australia carrying out tests on the safety of its plastics. My recall is because I did a once-a-fortnight voluntary stint in my child’s school canteen and the organiser was looking for safe plastic containers for storage. (School canteens were run voluntarily by Mums.)

I bought a few BX products but as I only have two in my cupboard, I think my children have commandeered the rest - as children do.

Alas, I don’t remember exactly what the plastics were being tested for so it could have been Bisphenol A or PFAS.

Since that time, I have been aware and wary of things like foil - using it sparingly and never to wrap food in; and linings of pans - gradually replaced with stainless steel pans with no lining.

If I had never volunteered all those years ago, I would have remained in blissful ignorance for at least another twenty years when Joe Public began to ask more questions and journalists began to write more about the safety of everyday items.

I don't eat takeaways, but have started using ice cream tubs, and milk bottles - any suitable plastic container - to germinate seeds.

I'd also like to point out that both the above containers, water bottles - in reality, any plastic - some make up, and even fertilizer contains PFAs, so saying 'Don't eat take aways because of the packaging' is a bit pointless!

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jul/09/toxic-forever-chemicals-plastic-food-containers

Rollo will soon be able to take his own (safe);refillable containers when he does his Aldi shop.

I only have a take away as a treat about once every 6 weeks and no RTR, wouldnt ever consider eating them on a daily basis!

For one they are not cheap and i couldnt afford them and also they are not healthy but a little of what you fancy now & then wont harm you.

ZZzzz re your loose tea.Is it in a carboard box or plastic bag?

Maggie, I use ice cream containers to grow seeds etc and have a stack of them in my gardening box but unlike a take away that could be put in a foil tray instead of a plastic container, ice cream cannot.

In my schools I worked in, pupils have to bring their own water bottles to fill at school as sharing a cup beside the fountain was no longer hygenic and at lunch times, plastic cups were being wasted terribly.

RTR not sure i understand whats wrong with the supermarkets? You go there to buy groceries and household products.Most have a huge range of everything thesedays, the price is really the only difference. Maintaining an SW10 lifestyle in the country??What does that have to do with recycling plastic containers?

Ah just realised, are you talking about the lack of facilities to take your own containers and refill at certain supermarkets? I have to say, in my own weekly shopping, there isnt very much, i could refill.
These machines where you can refill milk etc, i wouldnt use them because you have no idea how often the pipes etc are cleaned and what about a use by date?

You can take your own paper bags if you want and put your fruit and veg in them or a string bag or take a box as my supermarket has loads now and put all the groceries in that and no bags used...well if you have a car that is.

Florence in the hebrides

I've never come across a fill your own milk bottle machine before. Except from the farm opposite our old house, but then it came striaght from the tank.

Living here in the deep countryside I don't know of any fill your own shops nearby, but did sometimes pop into a shop that did that during our holidays. Never used the system as the containers looked filthy and full of dusty remains of the contents.

Our 2nd nearest supermarket is a Waitrose. But don't think that counts as a SW10 lifestyle. Some of the Waitroses in the area are not in the best of locales.

But surely, RTR, you shop at /eat food from the Co-op, that your partner works in/manages/owns?
...or is that the exception?



One of my great aunts was known as Bunty. That wasn't her real name.
She was from Wales, but died in England.

Thank you Florence, that was interesting and quite understandable.

My grandmother was called Florence. She lived and died in the old county of Middlesex. She worked hard, taking over the business of her late husband whilst bringing up her children.


Rollo is probably such a busy man that he doesn’t really do shopping - just leaving it all to his long suffering wife.

Surely Rollo has servants to shop for him?

I reuse any take away food containers either to feed snacks to the dog in....putting left over gravy etc in the freezer until I throw it out...or to put under plant pots to catch any water as I never seem to have enough trays to stand pots in...mainly because half the pots for seeds or cuttings are yogurt pots or similar.

Lol RTR...as I have no idea what you were bleating about either!

Does anyone Florence ? :-D :-D :-D

I think not LG, not even me and I'm fluent in gibberish.