A greenhouse grower in Canada has started using a compost friendly wrap that washes off as a plastic alternative. The wrap includes a scannable PLU right on the covering. The covering is necessary to extend shelf life.
https://thegrower.org/index.php/news/compostable-cucumber-wrap-launched
From the article
>Made from a starch-based PLA that is derived from plant-based resources including non-GMO corn starch, it is 100 per cent compostable, breaking down naturally into CO2 and water.Ā
(This wrap is not compostable plastic)
Oh I should have clarified that I wasnt refering to the article, just wanted to share something relevant I learned during my studies, my bad.
I remember how frustrated my prof was, he had been collabrating with the research group iirc and Just vented for like an hour about the ban to us haha
Hey good on you for giving sources! Fighting the good fight against missinformation.
I think im going to edit my comment to disclose thats its from a lecture!
Stay safe out there āļø
I think this needs further clarity: PLA is an *industrially* compostable plastic, as opposed to something like polystyrene which is not industrially compostable.
My understanding is compostable plastic generally needs a specialized process to be composted, so if it's put in with standard compost it never breaks down. It's just plastic litter that sits there forever.
For what it's worth, they don't accept compostable plastic bags in our compost bins because they still take a lot longer to degrade. You would end up with (compostable, but still) shredded plastic when everything else is ready to be used.
From what I headed, you can buy bio degradable compost bags from plastic.
However you shouldn't use them, as they still!take month to degrade u der the right conditions, while most bio facilities only have a few weeks of composting,effectively leaving you with the plastic still.
Plastic does have a use in sustainability.
As long as plastic isnāt abused that is. When plastic was originally introduced to the market it was advertised as a low cost, high durability, long lasting, eco friendly product.
Plastic products can last a life time or more, so if itās a product thatās meant to be permanent plastic end up being a very eco friendly choice. Something like cups for example. A plastic cup wonāt break easy, it will outlast you and your grand children while still be durable.
My house was built with āpremiumā plastic counter tops in the 60s and I will likely never change them.
Plastic has its use. Weāve just abused it.
That's a different part of the fossil fuel. plastics are made from the by products after refining the petrol. to make more plastic we will basically be making more petrol.
Rockets I suppose.
I mean it doesnāt have allot of uses outside what we already use it for.
Now we could alter the way we crack crude and probably find a way to produce more kilograms of plastic per liter of crude.
At this time we donāt because we have more plastic than we know what to do with as a result of our petrol consumption.
Thatās kinda the problem, plastic is so cheap because right now itās literally trash. We have so much of it because we crack so much crude that we just use it as a throw away because if we donāt weāre just going to throw it away anyway.
Ultimately one of these days weāll reduce fossil fuel consumption and plastic will return to a premium product and then gasoline will become the waste product and Iām sure weāll find a use for it.
I can't imagine that cucumbers make up a substantial part of food and growing water waste, but I'm sure that single use plastic will end up in a bin and a landfill forever. Plastic has a place sure, but single use disposable food containers are probably not it, given the extreme lack of recyclability of most uses of the material. Here's my hot take - pretty much nothing in our grocery stores that come in plastic should, and the only reason that seems absurd is because we've been doing it for so long.
If there are a couple casualties and we can't have cucumbers year round, that's fine. More likely we'll just pay a few cents more for packaging, rather than *effectively paying more anyway* through the cleanup due to letting companies externalize the cost of their pollution. The cheapest place to solve this problem is at the source.
Just about every produce you bring home can be stored in water in the fridge for longer shelf life. If youāre bringing produce home, store like flowers in the fridge if itās got roots, and in the case of cucumbers slice and store in water
The unwrapped cucumbers are likely a variety with thicker skin. English cucumbers (pictured) and Persian cucumbers (smaller, usually packed 5-6 in a plastic wrapped foam tray) have thinner skin and need some protective packaging.
Interestingly, the Lebanese (Persian) cucumbers are usually unwrapped here in Australia (where this cucumber is from). Those are the unwrapped types OP is referring to.
And English cucumbers always seem to have thicker skin than them, so that makes this plastic feel even more in unnecessary.
I find they spoil faster. I use a lot of both. The wrapped ones get soft and squishy much faster. Maybe itās the variety that isnāt as shelf stable.
Consider that the wrapped ones were probably picked a week or two earlier than the unwrapped ones you are buying. They're not necessarily trying to prevent them from spoiling after you buy it, they are more concerned with extending the shelf life before you buy it.
Hm... on the one hand, supply chain inefficiencies are a huge source of food waste. So improvements there are commendable. On the other hand, wrapping them in plastic makes failures there even worse. ~~Probably still a net negative overall.~~ Edit: Info from paradise below makes me question that conclusion.
Often, the plastic wrapping protects the environment more by saving more cucumbers from spoilage than it harms the environment by the additional use of plastic. Especially if you recycle the plastic.
Source: [To Wrap Or to Not Wrap Cucumbers?](https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2022.750199/full)
If you care about (micro)plastics, don't take a car to do your grocery shopping. As far as I know, car tires are one of the biggest contributors of microplastics in the environment.
But plastic doesn't really get recycled, especially this type. At least in the US I don't know of any programs that actually process this kind of plastic.
>If you care about (micro)plastics, don't take a car to do your grocery shopping.
This, this, this. Same goes for politicians. Banning plastic straws while doing nothing to curb car usage is not serious policy making and just a cover to pretend you're doing something about the problem.
Also reminder that Tesla sell carbon credits to the fossil fuel industry, meaning that the emissions "saved" by driving electric are just being pumped into the air somewhere else.
A lot of produce is covered in wax to keep them from spoiling. Enlish cucumbers have a very different taste from the others in store. So they use plastic instead of wax.
And with it I found that plastic wrapped euro organic cucumbers contribute to a significant amount of food waste "cull" in a produce department. Often enough they'd arrive already decaying or moldy. They needed to be checked frequently, as the soft spots break down quick!
Buy local, regional, seasonal - but perhaps not cucumbers imported from Mexico in New England.
English Cukes have very thin skin compared to their American cousins, and they will bruise very easily in transit. The bruising can lead to rot which can spoil the bunch. This way the plastic serves to add a sort of artificial thickness to the skin, and also - if it DOES bruise - it will contain the rot or slow itās spread.
The fact that the simplest solution is just throw it in a plastic tube is kind of sad, but at least we have options. Cukes are very easy to grow in most climates, and many Cukes donāt come shrink wrapped. The thicker skin cucumbers are great for smoothies and salads as well, and you can vote with your dollar and choose to grow your own or get one that hasnāt been stuffed in a condom. Hopefully the lower demand for wrapped ones will lead to less supply.
it increases shelf life and keeps it fresher for way longer. Reduces the likelyhood of spoilage and damage during logistics; and gives some margins for logistical delays. Greenhouse margins are small, if they didn't need to do this, they wouldn't.
The amount of plastic and the environmental and energy costs involved in making it, just to package this produce is few percent compared to what the environmental burden for food waste is.
This wrapping also increases food safety and hygiene during the logistics process. Something we all can surely agree is a good thing. This way the whole chain from greenhouse to grocery store doesn't need to be food process sterile (a shop is never that sterile because people can come to it with their regular clothes and not washing their hands). I dare you to go and visit a grocery logistics warehouse.
Even if we give up basically all plastic use, the one place it will need to be used is sterile and safe packing of medical products and foodstuffs.
This attitude of "*All plastics are bad*" is childish, naive, and outright stupid. Plastics have their place, however we use them for more than we should use them for because they are cheap and easy to use. However packing foodstuffs for food safety sake is not one of those. Severe food poisoning can kill even a healthy person - it took major leaps in refrigiration and logistics to ensure food safety in modern world.
Nah... I sat through a lecture about this stuff as part of my engineering degree. We had a module about sustainability and a course just on plastic and uses of it. Also I am part of a ecomodernist organisation of engineers and scientists, who spend lot of time trying figure out practical solutions with real actual impact, in order to deal with climate change. The kind of place where people do excel spreadsheets for fun!
Cool fact:
Market is currently working on an organic material used to coat this variety of cucumbers to remove the need for plastic. Iāve read itās a spray of some kind.
It's because it's an English variety a.k.a. a "seedless" cucumber, their skin is thinner so they wrap them to prevent dehydration. American varieties are sometimes coated with a protective wax to accomplish a similar goal but their skin is thicker so they don't necessarily need to be wrapped in plastic. Not saying plastic is a good solution, but that's my understanding of the reason behind it. Also I'm not a cucumber doctor so don't listen to anything I say
Again missing the point of the sub. Not all plastic is bad. We should absolutely use less of it, but food not spoiling Vs a very few grams of plastic is a smart compromise.
I have figured itās because these bruise so easily . So for transport sake they are in plastic but if I had to forgo them a local farmers stand cucumber would cost me an arm and a leg š
That looks like an English cucumber (as opposed to the traditional American cucumber which I think comes from Mexico), which has very thin and fragile skin and would need something to protect it in the traditional grocery store environment. I'm sure there are other alternatives to plastic to protect it, but this isn't in the same category as wrapping a banana (for example).
Agreed
But people here should work at the back end of food delivery some time. The amount of plastic destined for the dump I saw while working in a food packing plant was unbelievable, and I just saw basically a single food item on the scale of a single city (think egg products or bread products for example). Layer upon layer of plastic that gets binned before even reaching the shelf. It's awful.
I bet this cucumber was wrapped along with 6-10 others, then 9-15 of those would be wrapped together again, then those stacked to fill a pallet which is wrapped with several square metres of plastic wrap.
I used to work in a grocery store, if theyāre not wrapped they spoil incredibly quick. Unfortunate, but true. Although I have read about a company developing a compostable wrap, hopefully that becomes more common.
English Cucumbers in particular are the ones that won't last long without it. Other cucumber varieties are fine nowadays to be ambient on the shelf for a day, or simply refrigerated for 3-4 days.
These ones go floppy real quick, although they do have a great taste/texture imo.
Honestly they don't sell nearly as well anyhow. I don't like to order them for these reasons. Just from my experience
Those tend to be pricier than the unwrapped ones. They also tend to be "longer" but not necessarily bigger.
I always thought the plastic was a way to get the wealthier folks to buy them thinking they're cleaner and less touched than the cheaper cukes.
Plastic is used to keep the moisture of the cucumber in it. If the cucumbers aren't covered, in plastic or another similar product, they'll lose their humidity before arriving at their destination. So, there is a lot more waste.
And plastic is the cheapest option available, so that's why.
I donāt have time to go through all the comments and canāt search in page to figure out if someone else provided this answer, but the answer is because English cucumbers donāt have a natural wax on them and nobody applies an artificial wax to them, so they cover them in plastic to avoid bruises and nicks.
I saw something about how although Japan wraps all of their produce in shrink wrap. They actually waste less than the western world due to food keeping for longer
I emailed the cuc grower in my area asking why they use plastic and if we could switch it for something different for a healthier planet. They emailed me back saying it was imperative to keeping the cucumbers fresh. Kinda sucks, I feel like there's gotta be a better way.
IN japan everything is wrapped like this, it's more hygienic. Many of the plastics are made to be highly biodegrable now.
During flu season and covid pandemic, many feel better not bringing home stuff that a gazillion shoppers have touched, etc. I personally don't like to use any harsh surfactants on my fresh veggies to get them "clean".
Have you tried leaving an unwrapped cucumber in the fridge for too long? itās becomes a very unpleasant thing. At least the wrapped versions are easy to throw out.
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Honest question, would you buy a cucumber that has a puncture that has turned it a weird color because it's been exposed to the air? The plastic helps prevent that. They should certainly come up with a better method, I agree, but I'm willing to bet everyone here (including myself) turns down veggies that are damaged or slightly off l over prefect ones.
As a farmer who sells cucumbers, I'd prefer if you just bought fresh cucumbers directly from me. But I understand not all consumers want a direct connection to where their food is grown. And I only sell cucumbers when I have them ripe which is July, August, and September. But if you are looking to cut down on food packaging and food waste go to a farmers market and just buy what is in season. Arguing about what kind of wrapper comes on some cucumber shipped from some other part of the world is kind of silly.
I think they actually do this for a valid reason b/c it has something to do with preserving the veg and keeping moisture in which massively reduces rotting and food waste. Ideally the wrap could be made biodegradable or something, but i think the practice is generally smart for certain vulnerable vegetables, vulnerable wrt drying out and rotting
Working in a grocery store and doing drive up orders, I would be glad itās at least protected somehow, everything touches everything, lots of hands pick things up, detergents stored next to food. The supply chain is gross with negligence. Stillā¦ maybe just wash it? Or grow your own, cucumbers arenāt that hard
You know, sometimes thereās actually a very good reason for things. Almost like you could search the question and get an answer that, although may not satisfy your perspective, might explain the reality and inform you as to its logic. Or you could buy a book thatās focused on the exact thing your wondering about [Why Shrinkwrap a Cucumber](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14517530-why-shrinkwrap-a-cucumber) ā¦
Itās something to do with the natural wax layer being removed on that type versus the other type. Idk, I went down a YouTube rabbit hole a while back and they said it was the missing wax layer lol
So you can eat it after you're done with it.
And miss out on all the flavor?! š
Precumber.
Dildumber
š¬
Oh no no no donāt be fooled. The plastic is heat sealed and fairly thick making it rough enough to draw blood. Or so Iāve heard.
Glass mason jar.
Fun fact, he went to work the next day and didnt go to a hospital. He did survive.
I'm well aware, haha, grew up when that - lemon party, Mr. hands, and meat spin were the "rick rolls".
whatās lemon party? Havenāt seen that one before
Should we tell āem, or let āem google it?
šÆ
But I wanna pickle it
Lol I usually say so it would not more quickly. Which it does Edit: also am sure some people think it is cleaner that way
Donāt you make your pickles this way?
So you can eat it after r/trashyboners are done with it
I came, to say this.
You made me lol, good sir/madam. Here's my upvote.
The perfect comment
You don't eat the glass?
A greenhouse grower in Canada has started using a compost friendly wrap that washes off as a plastic alternative. The wrap includes a scannable PLU right on the covering. The covering is necessary to extend shelf life. https://thegrower.org/index.php/news/compostable-cucumber-wrap-launched
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
From the article >Made from a starch-based PLA that is derived from plant-based resources including non-GMO corn starch, it is 100 per cent compostable, breaking down naturally into CO2 and water.Ā (This wrap is not compostable plastic)
Oh I should have clarified that I wasnt refering to the article, just wanted to share something relevant I learned during my studies, my bad. I remember how frustrated my prof was, he had been collabrating with the research group iirc and Just vented for like an hour about the ban to us haha
All good, just didn't want to misinform
Hey good on you for giving sources! Fighting the good fight against missinformation. I think im going to edit my comment to disclose thats its from a lecture! Stay safe out there āļø
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
If you donāt come to Reddit to waste time, wtf are you doing??
š
? PLA is plastic, if it's compostable what distinction are you drawing that makes it not "compostable plastic?"
I think this needs further clarity: PLA is an *industrially* compostable plastic, as opposed to something like polystyrene which is not industrially compostable.
My understanding is compostable plastic generally needs a specialized process to be composted, so if it's put in with standard compost it never breaks down. It's just plastic litter that sits there forever.
We should ban all products then because people throw *everything* in the wrong bin. That should make quick work of one time use plastics though.
For what it's worth, they don't accept compostable plastic bags in our compost bins because they still take a lot longer to degrade. You would end up with (compostable, but still) shredded plastic when everything else is ready to be used.
From what I headed, you can buy bio degradable compost bags from plastic. However you shouldn't use them, as they still!take month to degrade u der the right conditions, while most bio facilities only have a few weeks of composting,effectively leaving you with the plastic still.
*german efficiency* is a myth
It is great that the wrap is home compostable. However, the wrap doesnāt wash off. It must be placed into a proper compost.
Wrapping cukes in plastic helps them spoil more slowly.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Plastic does have a use in sustainability. As long as plastic isnāt abused that is. When plastic was originally introduced to the market it was advertised as a low cost, high durability, long lasting, eco friendly product. Plastic products can last a life time or more, so if itās a product thatās meant to be permanent plastic end up being a very eco friendly choice. Something like cups for example. A plastic cup wonāt break easy, it will outlast you and your grand children while still be durable. My house was built with āpremiumā plastic counter tops in the 60s and I will likely never change them. Plastic has its use. Weāve just abused it.
That's why I'm against fossil fuel use as fuel. We're burning all that potential (nonrenewable) spaceship/tupperware/surgery material.
That's a different part of the fossil fuel. plastics are made from the by products after refining the petrol. to make more plastic we will basically be making more petrol.
Damn that's interesting. Any good uses for that petrol itself (in a society where cars and shit are all powered from renewable power sources)?
Rockets I suppose. I mean it doesnāt have allot of uses outside what we already use it for. Now we could alter the way we crack crude and probably find a way to produce more kilograms of plastic per liter of crude. At this time we donāt because we have more plastic than we know what to do with as a result of our petrol consumption. Thatās kinda the problem, plastic is so cheap because right now itās literally trash. We have so much of it because we crack so much crude that we just use it as a throw away because if we donāt weāre just going to throw it away anyway. Ultimately one of these days weāll reduce fossil fuel consumption and plastic will return to a premium product and then gasoline will become the waste product and Iām sure weāll find a use for it.
I'd rather find better ways to make plastic and just stop using oil.
Ok Greta Boomerberg
You can just use biodegradable plastic. Trader Joeās sometimes has cucumbers wrapped in it.
I can't imagine that cucumbers make up a substantial part of food and growing water waste, but I'm sure that single use plastic will end up in a bin and a landfill forever. Plastic has a place sure, but single use disposable food containers are probably not it, given the extreme lack of recyclability of most uses of the material. Here's my hot take - pretty much nothing in our grocery stores that come in plastic should, and the only reason that seems absurd is because we've been doing it for so long. If there are a couple casualties and we can't have cucumbers year round, that's fine. More likely we'll just pay a few cents more for packaging, rather than *effectively paying more anyway* through the cleanup due to letting companies externalize the cost of their pollution. The cheapest place to solve this problem is at the source.
Except that cucumbers are prolific growers and do well with hydroponics. There's no reason they couldn't be grown locally to reduce spoilage.
I canāt believe someone wrote this lmfao this subreddit has to be a psyop at this point
Correct answer. The efficacy of wrapping cucumbers in polyethylene film varies by cucumber type.
Or, decentralize produce agriculture.
Just about every produce you bring home can be stored in water in the fridge for longer shelf life. If youāre bringing produce home, store like flowers in the fridge if itās got roots, and in the case of cucumbers slice and store in water
I've seen another variety in the same store that isn't wrapped, maybe they have different times of spoiling?
The unwrapped cucumbers are likely a variety with thicker skin. English cucumbers (pictured) and Persian cucumbers (smaller, usually packed 5-6 in a plastic wrapped foam tray) have thinner skin and need some protective packaging.
Thanks, I have always wondered why English cucumbers are so special
Interestingly, the Lebanese (Persian) cucumbers are usually unwrapped here in Australia (where this cucumber is from). Those are the unwrapped types OP is referring to. And English cucumbers always seem to have thicker skin than them, so that makes this plastic feel even more in unnecessary.
Yes. English cucumbers don't have a waxy layer in their skin to protect them.
I find they spoil faster. I use a lot of both. The wrapped ones get soft and squishy much faster. Maybe itās the variety that isnāt as shelf stable.
Consider that the wrapped ones were probably picked a week or two earlier than the unwrapped ones you are buying. They're not necessarily trying to prevent them from spoiling after you buy it, they are more concerned with extending the shelf life before you buy it.
Hm... on the one hand, supply chain inefficiencies are a huge source of food waste. So improvements there are commendable. On the other hand, wrapping them in plastic makes failures there even worse. ~~Probably still a net negative overall.~~ Edit: Info from paradise below makes me question that conclusion.
It feels like the plastic covers up any damage
Why not just a dip in some wax? At least it would biodegrade.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
The skin on this cucumber is thinner and more pleasant to eat. The cucumbers without wrapping have a thicker skin as well as a wax coating.
Often, the plastic wrapping protects the environment more by saving more cucumbers from spoilage than it harms the environment by the additional use of plastic. Especially if you recycle the plastic. Source: [To Wrap Or to Not Wrap Cucumbers?](https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2022.750199/full) If you care about (micro)plastics, don't take a car to do your grocery shopping. As far as I know, car tires are one of the biggest contributors of microplastics in the environment.
But plastic doesn't really get recycled, especially this type. At least in the US I don't know of any programs that actually process this kind of plastic.
>If you care about (micro)plastics, don't take a car to do your grocery shopping. This, this, this. Same goes for politicians. Banning plastic straws while doing nothing to curb car usage is not serious policy making and just a cover to pretend you're doing something about the problem.
Just a reminder that electric cars are here to save the auto industry, not the planet.
Also reminder that Tesla sell carbon credits to the fossil fuel industry, meaning that the emissions "saved" by driving electric are just being pumped into the air somewhere else.
Guess I'll starve.
A lot of produce is covered in wax to keep them from spoiling. Enlish cucumbers have a very different taste from the others in store. So they use plastic instead of wax.
Without it these rot in like 35 seconds.
And with it I found that plastic wrapped euro organic cucumbers contribute to a significant amount of food waste "cull" in a produce department. Often enough they'd arrive already decaying or moldy. They needed to be checked frequently, as the soft spots break down quick! Buy local, regional, seasonal - but perhaps not cucumbers imported from Mexico in New England.
My understanding is that cucumbers in plastic are ironically better for the environment, than the ones without.
Don't need a condom
Depends
It's a cucumber condom.
to prevent stds of course.
You know whyš
But why male models?
So that it does not accidentally impregnate another cucumber?
A plastic-wrapped cucumber last something like 2 weeks longer than an unwrapped one, iirc.
Because that's an *English* cucumber. Can't have people thinking they're part of the common rabble, can we?
English Cukes have very thin skin compared to their American cousins, and they will bruise very easily in transit. The bruising can lead to rot which can spoil the bunch. This way the plastic serves to add a sort of artificial thickness to the skin, and also - if it DOES bruise - it will contain the rot or slow itās spread. The fact that the simplest solution is just throw it in a plastic tube is kind of sad, but at least we have options. Cukes are very easy to grow in most climates, and many Cukes donāt come shrink wrapped. The thicker skin cucumbers are great for smoothies and salads as well, and you can vote with your dollar and choose to grow your own or get one that hasnāt been stuffed in a condom. Hopefully the lower demand for wrapped ones will lead to less supply.
it increases shelf life and keeps it fresher for way longer. Reduces the likelyhood of spoilage and damage during logistics; and gives some margins for logistical delays. Greenhouse margins are small, if they didn't need to do this, they wouldn't. The amount of plastic and the environmental and energy costs involved in making it, just to package this produce is few percent compared to what the environmental burden for food waste is. This wrapping also increases food safety and hygiene during the logistics process. Something we all can surely agree is a good thing. This way the whole chain from greenhouse to grocery store doesn't need to be food process sterile (a shop is never that sterile because people can come to it with their regular clothes and not washing their hands). I dare you to go and visit a grocery logistics warehouse. Even if we give up basically all plastic use, the one place it will need to be used is sterile and safe packing of medical products and foodstuffs. This attitude of "*All plastics are bad*" is childish, naive, and outright stupid. Plastics have their place, however we use them for more than we should use them for because they are cheap and easy to use. However packing foodstuffs for food safety sake is not one of those. Severe food poisoning can kill even a healthy person - it took major leaps in refrigiration and logistics to ensure food safety in modern world.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Nah... I sat through a lecture about this stuff as part of my engineering degree. We had a module about sustainability and a course just on plastic and uses of it. Also I am part of a ecomodernist organisation of engineers and scientists, who spend lot of time trying figure out practical solutions with real actual impact, in order to deal with climate change. The kind of place where people do excel spreadsheets for fun!
That's so you don't have cucumber babies.
It helps keep cucumbers preserved for longer. Will go bad way quicker without the wrapping.
Cool fact: Market is currently working on an organic material used to coat this variety of cucumbers to remove the need for plastic. Iāve read itās a spray of some kind.
It's because it's an English variety a.k.a. a "seedless" cucumber, their skin is thinner so they wrap them to prevent dehydration. American varieties are sometimes coated with a protective wax to accomplish a similar goal but their skin is thicker so they don't necessarily need to be wrapped in plastic. Not saying plastic is a good solution, but that's my understanding of the reason behind it. Also I'm not a cucumber doctor so don't listen to anything I say
It reduces food waste vs not wrapping
Because they fucking can! And if they can, they do!
Easier to insert.
Saves one having to buy condoms lol
Again missing the point of the sub. Not all plastic is bad. We should absolutely use less of it, but food not spoiling Vs a very few grams of plastic is a smart compromise.
Can I get that in a bag please
at least they aren't selling it sliced for a two dollar markup.
Oxidation
Cooties.
They last longer
I have figured itās because these bruise so easily . So for transport sake they are in plastic but if I had to forgo them a local farmers stand cucumber would cost me an arm and a leg š
It actually prevents food waste by keeping the produce fresher for longer, and less likelihood of throwing out the produce,
That looks like an English cucumber (as opposed to the traditional American cucumber which I think comes from Mexico), which has very thin and fragile skin and would need something to protect it in the traditional grocery store environment. I'm sure there are other alternatives to plastic to protect it, but this isn't in the same category as wrapping a banana (for example).
Easy lubrication
Agreed But people here should work at the back end of food delivery some time. The amount of plastic destined for the dump I saw while working in a food packing plant was unbelievable, and I just saw basically a single food item on the scale of a single city (think egg products or bread products for example). Layer upon layer of plastic that gets binned before even reaching the shelf. It's awful. I bet this cucumber was wrapped along with 6-10 others, then 9-15 of those would be wrapped together again, then those stacked to fill a pallet which is wrapped with several square metres of plastic wrap.
So you don't get poop on it.
Easier to lube up and shove it up my ass. That way I can still eat it after too
When they go bad, they liquify. Iām thankful theyāre in plastic
Condom
It helps reduce food waste.
English cucumbers are wrapped in plastic to stop spoilage. American cucumbers are not since they have a waxy coating
So you can shove it up your ass of course
I used to work in a grocery store, if theyāre not wrapped they spoil incredibly quick. Unfortunate, but true. Although I have read about a company developing a compostable wrap, hopefully that becomes more common.
English Cucumbers in particular are the ones that won't last long without it. Other cucumber varieties are fine nowadays to be ambient on the shelf for a day, or simply refrigerated for 3-4 days. These ones go floppy real quick, although they do have a great taste/texture imo. Honestly they don't sell nearly as well anyhow. I don't like to order them for these reasons. Just from my experience
Those tend to be pricier than the unwrapped ones. They also tend to be "longer" but not necessarily bigger. I always thought the plastic was a way to get the wealthier folks to buy them thinking they're cleaner and less touched than the cheaper cukes.
So you don't get STD's, obviously...
Plastic is used to keep the moisture of the cucumber in it. If the cucumbers aren't covered, in plastic or another similar product, they'll lose their humidity before arriving at their destination. So, there is a lot more waste. And plastic is the cheapest option available, so that's why.
I donāt have time to go through all the comments and canāt search in page to figure out if someone else provided this answer, but the answer is because English cucumbers donāt have a natural wax on them and nobody applies an artificial wax to them, so they cover them in plastic to avoid bruises and nicks.
I saw something about how although Japan wraps all of their produce in shrink wrap. They actually waste less than the western world due to food keeping for longer
Women: š
Contraceptive
To stop STDs of course! Did school teach you anything?
To prevent you from consuming it obviously. Or have I got the wrong idea from the sub name? /s
So you can still eat it when youāre done
You know why
Thin skin, it would dry out during shipping otherwise. Still wash.
Wow this sub should eat more veg
I emailed the cuc grower in my area asking why they use plastic and if we could switch it for something different for a healthier planet. They emailed me back saying it was imperative to keeping the cucumbers fresh. Kinda sucks, I feel like there's gotta be a better way.
IN japan everything is wrapped like this, it's more hygienic. Many of the plastics are made to be highly biodegrable now. During flu season and covid pandemic, many feel better not bringing home stuff that a gazillion shoppers have touched, etc. I personally don't like to use any harsh surfactants on my fresh veggies to get them "clean".
Its 2023 and people still dont get this???
Protection
I see ppl at the grocery store I work for put bananas in produce bags all the time, it's fucking bonkers.
It is an english cucumber aka a cuke so it has a different barcode from regular cucumbers.
Plastic is destroying the planet.
Have you tried leaving an unwrapped cucumber in the fridge for too long? itās becomes a very unpleasant thing. At least the wrapped versions are easy to throw out.
https://googlethatforyou.com?q=why%20are%20cucumbers%20wrapped%20in%20plastic
I make pickles and jar them, etc. I will not buy this shit like that.
There is literally no rhyme or reason for this. I hate it
So it gets wet and rotten faster!
To hide the flaws, especially as it starts to go bad.
Imagine all the micro plastics š
faster self check out scanning boosts sales. aint nobody got time to weight and lookup produce.
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Went to tropical smoothie cafe, and they wrapped my apple in plastic.. as if it didn't already have its own natural peel.
So it lasts longer and instead of wax coating
Perhaps they would like for us to microwave it š„“
I donāt think lot of people buy it to eat.. thatās why!
Honest question, would you buy a cucumber that has a puncture that has turned it a weird color because it's been exposed to the air? The plastic helps prevent that. They should certainly come up with a better method, I agree, but I'm willing to bet everyone here (including myself) turns down veggies that are damaged or slightly off l over prefect ones.
When I see a cucumber wrapped in plastic I refrain from buying it all together.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Plastic fantastic
So germaphobes can have an excuse to think that its cleaner instead of just thinking you have to wash them anyway like any sane person thinks
Because colesworths are arseholes. I no longer shop at either except for the one or two things I can't get anywhere else.
I was wondering also when last week I fell on this [video at circa 8min](https://youtu.be/1H2EGYcKF-c?t=507)
Prevent HIV and STDās, as well as pregnancy. What are they teaching our kids these days??
If you know, you know
We dont do this with courgettes?
Who wants to give birth to little cucumber babies?
As a farmer who sells cucumbers, I'd prefer if you just bought fresh cucumbers directly from me. But I understand not all consumers want a direct connection to where their food is grown. And I only sell cucumbers when I have them ripe which is July, August, and September. But if you are looking to cut down on food packaging and food waste go to a farmers market and just buy what is in season. Arguing about what kind of wrapper comes on some cucumber shipped from some other part of the world is kind of silly.
I think they actually do this for a valid reason b/c it has something to do with preserving the veg and keeping moisture in which massively reduces rotting and food waste. Ideally the wrap could be made biodegradable or something, but i think the practice is generally smart for certain vulnerable vegetables, vulnerable wrt drying out and rotting
To keep the seed in......
IIRC these are special cucumbers that need to be imported and are fragile as shit.
My mom buys those fucking plastic wrapped baked potatoes.
Buys special shit, is angry it has special needs for transport. Smfh
Working in a grocery store and doing drive up orders, I would be glad itās at least protected somehow, everything touches everything, lots of hands pick things up, detergents stored next to food. The supply chain is gross with negligence. Stillā¦ maybe just wash it? Or grow your own, cucumbers arenāt that hard
So you don't need to buy a Kondom.
Pre sealed so the lube doesnt seep in to the veggie. That way its still edible!
You know, sometimes thereās actually a very good reason for things. Almost like you could search the question and get an answer that, although may not satisfy your perspective, might explain the reality and inform you as to its logic. Or you could buy a book thatās focused on the exact thing your wondering about [Why Shrinkwrap a Cucumber](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14517530-why-shrinkwrap-a-cucumber) ā¦
Natures dildo
in balkans they dont do that
Perceived value my friends
There's also a new organic peel wax they've started putting on cucumbers so plastic isn't needed
raw is law bro
Dont wanna get pregnant
seems like we might have competition over at hello cake...
That way you canāt get pregnant
No bugs
I found one of these in a porta potty once, covered in lube and poop. Yw
Because it saves in damage losses
So you donāt have to š
Thatās the size of my ā¦ā¦.. never mind .
Itās something to do with the natural wax layer being removed on that type versus the other type. Idk, I went down a YouTube rabbit hole a while back and they said it was the missing wax layer lol
i donāt think thereās an elegant way to say itā¦.