10/01/07 Struggling with my plastic food wrappers

As I look out over the discarded packaging of an eaten fruit salad (freshly prepared). What sort of plastic is it? Will it remain in a landfill for about a thousand years while it slowly decomposes? But even if it has a ‘recyclable’ sign on it (it does) where on Earth am I going to dispose of it? Must get a plastic crusher so I can take it to the council recycling some time. Is there such a thing? Lunch was a choice between poached salmon and vegetarian quiche. I love salmon, but only the organic sort. Salmon farming in Scotland seemed such a good idea to begin with, great way to expand the economy as well as supplying more people with what was previously a bit of a luxury, but now? Then there was the Coca-Cola dilemma. Coke comes in two basic forms: diet and non-diet. I had been drinking rather too much of the diet variety recently, as I like to watch the calories, but feeling increasingly guilty because of the Monsanto link. Study the ingredients of just about any diet drink – including sugar-free squash – and you’ll find a component called Aspartame. This is marketed by a company called Monsanto, which has – well, not a very good name – with environmental campaigners.