One spicy Redditor recently shared their frustrations with the internet when they posted a picture from their latest grocery store order to r/Anticonsumption.
"My garlic came wrapped in plastic," they write, accompanied by a photo of the garlic in question, covered in shrinkwrap emblazoned with the Spice World logo.
For sustainably-minded consumers, excessive plastic packaging is a constant source of frustration. And rarely is it more frustrating than when it's being used to package something that didn't even need packaging in the first place.
As one commenter quickly points out, packaging garlic in plastic isn't just wasteful, it's completely unnecessary, as garlic skin naturally provides all the protection needed to get it from the store safely into your home kitchen.
"If only there was some sort of natural protection for my garlic," they write sarcastically.
While we've seen similar (and sometimes even worse) questionable packaging practices from meal kit delivery services, the purchaser of this particular garlic explains that they had simply placed an order for pickup at their local grocery store, and the garlic came like this when they went to collect it.
"I really need my local farmers market to open back up," the Redditor writes. "The plastic packaging on everything is abysmal."
Single-use plastics are a big problem for our planet — they are made primarily from dirty energy-produced chemicals, and their production creates huge amounts of planet-warming carbon gas. What's even worse, 10 million tons of plastic waste end up in the ocean each year, killing around one million marine animals annually.
The other members of the subreddit were not impressed by Spice World's decision to plastic wrap the garlic.
"That's only because they haven't figured out yet how to print the logo directly on the garlic," writes one commenter.
Another commenter suggests one way to get around the entire thing — growing your own garlic.
"Garlic is super easy to grow!" they write. "Throw a clove in a pot in the fall and put the pot outside. Give it a compost tea in March and then pick it in May, and you have a whole new garlic for free without the plastic."
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