I’m sharing this because any reduction in unnecessary packaging waste is good for the planet - and because I think laser-etching avocados is funny. 🙂
But they are already avocados, packaging or etching is completely avoidable…
Many people forget that a store can have two types of avocados priced differently that then needs to be distinguished from one another at the checkout. It could for example be organic Vs conventional. Or for apples there are many different types that can all look the same. I find this type of tech pretty cool. I would love to see variations of it. Maybe editable wax ink or something like that
Around here we just have little stickers on the produce with a code number on it. Most produce is just stacked with no packaging. You collect as many as you want in a bag. At the check out, the little code number can be used tell what the exact variety is.
This seems a lot simpler than lazer etching to me, but idk, maybe that is really cheap and easy too?
It’s also about the fear of people just moving stickers around. I personally think it’s probably only a very small amount of people who would actually do that so the cost of preventing that is not worth it.
I can inform you that laser edging is much cheaper and way faster than stickers. Lasers are cheap and you don’t have any consumables you need to keep buying like stickers.
Stickers don’t break down, however. They’re super annoying for composting stuff because you have to remove every single one
You slap the sticker on the bag yourself where I’m from
But how are you supposed to know it’s an avocado if it’s not laser etched??? /s
Agreed, but since they’re not avoiding packaging or etching, etching is better.
Personally, I’d rather see them etched wit guacamole recipes.
But what’s the point if etching them in the first place? They etch cabbage or ears of corn. It just seems overkill for no reason
Seriously, I feel like this could all have been replaced by a paper sign…
Some markets that use signs also use a dot or two from a colored pen on the differently priced avocados (organic, large, etc.) to distinguish them at checkout.
How do you scan them at checkout? Yes you could do manual entry/lookup. That could be said about everything though.
4770, most cashiers knows that code by heart
This thread seems to be populated by competent people. I would like everyone to step back for a moment however and consider how many incompetent people exist.
Think about self-serve checkouts, and how despite items being clearly labeled and the machines having item lookups, people still struggle constantly. Now imagine how many more people would struggle without the label.
Think about the employee wrangling the self checkout dealing with increased frustrated customers. Think about how fickle customers can be, throwing up their hands at a minor obstacle and deciding to just buy avocados from now on from the store across the street that still uses stickers. You know these people exist. You know they exist in number. So do markets, so the laser etching is mitigating the problems they’ll have from removing stickers.
I get where you’re coming from but I’ll just say most fruits and vegetables already don’t have any stickers on them here (Canada) and people have been surviving fine. The only time I see a sticker is when it’s bundled in a pack.
If someone struggle that much he usually goes to a cashier instead of the self-checkout.
I’ve never seen avocados in a box. Is that a common thing outside of the US?
Come to Denmark and you’ll be seriously shocked by how much plastic is used for food packaging. It’s insane and I hate it so much.
The US has its own share of overly plastic packaging. I have occasionally seen individual vegetables shrinkwrapped. It’s just not the norm.
I saw a pre-peeled orange for sale at a convenience store. It was wrapped in plastic wrap. Like, why‽‽‽ They literally grow their own wrapper…
It happens to cucumbers relatively often but other veggies are just so weirdly shaped from a packaging standpoint that I don’t think they see it as worthwhile
Cucumbers have much better shelf-life when shrink-wrapped. It ends up a debate of which is worse between food waste and plastic waste.
Oh really? I did not know that.
That was the one I was thinking of! I knew there was an organic veggie I regularly buy that’s wrapped.
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Tesco is in the Uk so I would say so.
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You know what’s even less packaging? Not putting them in a box
And not etching them as well.
Dunno why you got downvoted for this. I don’t see why they’d waste energy etching them when they can just label the tub they’re displayed in.
What? You guys wrapping avocado individually in a paper box? Why?
I dunno. Supermarkets near where I live sell avocados individually out of a big plastic tub under a sign saying AVOCADOS in case you can’t tell by looking.
I’ve never seen Tesco sell avocados like this before, normally they’re just loose in a box or something
I feel like other grocers have already solved this problem by just not putting barcodes on the produce at all, and having the item manually punched in at the register while it’s on a scale (if it’s sold by weight and not per item).
I once laser engraved “help I’m a banana” on a banana.
Death to non-compostable produce stickers. If lasers are what it takes, I’m all for it (not sure if that’s really what’s going on here though).
Death to non-compostable produce stickers.
God I hate those. They constantly end up in the compost despite my best efforts. God only knows how many of them are part of the soil in my garden now.
Archeologists of whatever species comes after us will be excited to learn about your food choices
“Wow, they sure did eat a lot of stickers.”
“We postulate that the stickers may have had some spiritual or religious function, possibly in hopes of a good harvest.”
I would totally eat Laser Avocado Doritos!
Or buy things without packaging when it is available like for avocados
They use this technique for a while now to mark organic fruit and veg in my (german) supermarket. Where they used packaging previously to distinguish them from regular, cheaper produce, they can omit that now. I like it.
Was about to say this. I was a bit surprised my ginger had a logo lasered into it the first time I saw this
Laser all the foods!
they could etch an advertisement on them to subsidize the cost.
Or “you could have bought a house”
Fuck that
Would be cool to Lazer the Barcode on it
I believe this has been tried, but is difficult to do with most produce because the shape changes as the fruit ages on the shelf, making the barcodes unusable.
You know what other option is popular and much more common than packaging or etching. A tiny sticker, made out of recycled paper.
Better yet biodegradable paper and glue so you just throw all the shit in a compost bin!
The stickers are compostable and edible already
Editing to say I’m a liar I guess, since I couldn’t find proof to back this claim and have just been eating plastic sometimes.
Where do you have that? I haven’t seen that in most places
Omg I guess I’ve been tricked. I had read that they were mostly in at least the US but now can’t find any evidence to support that. Gotta do my homework better I guess.
There’s one company that is making them that has customers all over north america but I guess it’s not as common as I thought. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/plastic-sticker-produce-ban-alternative-1.6844972
You dont even need the sticker. They are avocados and are distinct and easy for a cashier or moron at self checkout to figure out how to ring up.
Rice paper, IIRC, with edible ink and glue
I think a lot of produce uses some PVC material for labels.
in the US i believe by law food stickers need to be edible.
Yeah I was googling around and as far as I could tell they must not be harmful if accidentally consumed, but I think can still be made of plastic (which is…weird), and don’t need to be compostable:
https://modernfarmer.com/2018/03/little-produce-stickers-are-big-waste-problem/
I could be wrong though, it’s kinda confusing as to the rules.
Why are single avocados packaged in any way?
Isn’t that using way more energy…?
Eh… I dunno. You’d be comparing the power consumption of the laser etching machine to the energy cost of shipping oil to make the plastic to make the label, shipping the raw plastic to a facility to actually print the labels, making the adhesive, then (probably) shipping the labels and adhesive to the packing plant and then adding in the power of the machinery to that actually sticks the label on.
I have no real numbers here but I could see zapping a avocado with a laser being the more energy efficient one.
What label? I literally have not seen any sort of stickers on fruits & veggies in years. I only see packaging on softer produce that’s prone to damage, quick to dry out, or harder to carry due to size. But again, it’s an avocado.
It likely only takes a few kilojoules to etch each avocado which is essentially nothing (for comparison, an avocado has around a megajoule of energy).
Not sure where the energy of the avocado becomes relevant here. It won’t be used to produce electricity.
It’s not really relevant, just a comparison to show how little energy that few kilojoules is.
Energy and packaging are orthogonal concerns, but we should be aware of both of them.
I don’t see the point for either. It’s an avocado.
It’s a label with food in it now
If it can replace the not-always-compostable stickers, I think it’s likely a good tradeoff.
They dont even nneed a sticker. At the self checkout at my store you just hit the “item lookup” and press “avocados” and thoe how many you have
Replace? I’ve not seen stickers on any veggies or fruits in many many years.
