Tesco's Laser-Etched Avocados to Save on Packaging Waste - Core77
www.core77.com
"Laser avocado" sounds like a Doritos flavor, but it's actually a packaging technique being trialed by Tesco. In a bid to reduce packaging waste, the UK supermarket chain is laser-etching avocados rather than using barcode stickers. And for their avocado products that come in twin packs, they're ditching the plastic

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. 🙂

    • Sludgehammer@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      8 months ago

      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.

    • LostXOR@fedia.io
      3·
      8 months ago

      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).

    • Pennomi@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      8 months ago

      Energy and packaging are orthogonal concerns, but we should be aware of both of them.