Ableism X Pre-Packaged Fruit

Ableism X Pre-Packaged Fruit

I've given out a ton about pre-packaged fruit and the amount of plastic waste that sort of thing generates...

I am sure you'd have come across that classic tweet "If only nature would find a way to cover these oranges so we didn't need to waste so much plastic on them!".

At a glance, pre-packaged fruit looks like a lazy solution for something that quite frankly, isn't a 'real' problem.

But... the actual problem here is that this POV completely ignores how pre-packaged fruit - pre-packaged food, in general - impacts the lives of elderly people or those with disabilities.

It looks wasteful, it looks like something we don't really *need* but maybe "we" aren't considering that "we" are not all the same.

I'd love to see containers with pre-packaged food get more environmentally friendly (see @eatto_ie and the great work they do on that front!) but more importantly, environmentalists - and the wider audience, as a matter of fact - need to start considering disability and accessibility whether it be in finding more sustainable way to create the products we rely on to accessible sustainable housing… do you agree?

What I'd rather not see is people throwing elderly / disabled people under the bus because they’d rather get rid of a product than figure out a way to deliver it sustainably...

The problem here is probably the increasing number of people buying pre-packaged foods when the unpackaged version would do just fine... think about it next time you feel like bringing home some pomegranate seeds or perfectly cut melon balls.

Food for thought? No pun intended!

Leave a comment

Please note, comments must be approved before they are published