Plastic and carbon foodprint

The supermarkets sell too much plastic packaging to consumer. They should commit (comprometerse) to a plastic-free aisle /ail/ in their stores. But they prefer not to talk about the amount of plastic packaging /pácki3ing/ they put on the market. The top supermarkets are creating a plastic waste (desperdicio) problem of more than 800.000 tonnes each year. There is a mounting (creciente) public concern about the damage (daño) that plastic does to the natural world.

Supermakets in the UK keep their plastic footprint (impacto) secret.

Supermarkets in the UK keep their plastic footprint secret with a confidentiality agreement signed /saind/ with the agencies involved in the British recycling compliance (cumplimiento) scheme. It means the amount of plastic packaging created by each supermarket and the money they pay towards its recycling is kept out of the public domain.

Maybe Britain should adopt the French system of "bonus-malus" where supermarkets are taxed more for using material which is not easily recyclable and less for sustainable and recyclable packaging.

While supermarkets like Co-op has cut its plastic packaging by 4% in the last 10 years, and they has introduced key changes which others have followed...

Iceland would eliminate plastic packaging on all its own-brand products within (dentro de) five years.

This is vertiginous the way plastic production is growing. Supermarkets are shamed (avergonzados) for plastic packaging.

It's something we do every day: open the lunchbox (fiambrera), unwrap our food and throw away the packaging. But all that waste can really start to add up (sumar, ascender).

That's one of the reasons why people were outraged (indignado) /autrei3/ when they saw this photo from the US of a peeled mandarin in a plastic container. Many said it was really wasteful (derrochador),  given the mandarin's peel was already a natural packaging.
We should leave mandarins, babanas in their natural packaging: the peel./pi:l/.
We`re lost our minds and we need to think about what we're buying.
A lot of so called convenience food is really light stuff that can easily blow out of our bins or blow around and get into thw waterways.

Some schools have made a switch (cambio) to something called "nude food". It's a food without wrapper (envoltorio), so you could put it in a reusable container, It reduces the amount of rubbish that we have, and if that rubbish doesn`t get put in the bin, it blows around and can end up in the ocean, and some animals like turtles can think it's jellyfish (medusas) and eat that and that cab be bad for their body.

Unnecessary packaging
The peel is a natural packaging
to wrap- to unwrap- a wrapper
envolver-desenvolver-envoltorio
packet /pákit/

These days we're all becoming more and more concerned about the effect our lifestyle has on the environment. Our carbon footprint tells us how much land and water is needed to support the way we live. It takes into account things like the food we buy, the amount of traveling we do, the amount of rubbish we throw away and how much energy we consume.

Forty percent of food produced in the US isn't eaten. Landfills are a terrible place for food. Trapped without oxygen under a mountain of garbage, a head of lettuce takes 25 years to decompose. While scraps (sobras) in compost piles transform quickly into valuable fertilizer, in landfills (vertedero) they instead produce methane (a greenhouse gas).

Compost: abono.

To compost: usar como abono, convertirse en abono, fertilizar

    You can compost all vegetable peels and fruit skins.

Composting is a simple way to add nutrient-rich humus which fuels (aviva, alimenta) plant growth (crecimiento) and restores vitality to depleted (agotado) soil (tierra). It's also free, easy to make and good for the environment.

You can buy or build a compost bin.

Composting offers a natural alternative to chemical fertilizers and reduces landfill waste.

waste: desecho, desperdicio

To waste: desperdiciar

wasted: desaprovechado, desperdiciado

wasteful: derrochador, desperdicio

e-waste: electronic waste

household waste: desechos familiares (viejos muebles, TV...)

planned obsolescence

to put on the rubbish at night

to throw away

To sort/classify the rubbish

junk, junk food, junk mail (=spam)

biodegradable

renewable

sustainable

garbage (AM)- rubbish (UK): basura

trash (incontable): basura

Vídeo y práctica sobre environment