Can an onion make you cry without you even touching it? A picture that has been circulating on social media has shown that it can at least make you feel sad. It is the photo of a whole onion that, despite being covered with its own skin, is sold packed on a plastic tray with cling film on top.
The photograph, published a few days ago in the Facebook account of the blog "La hipótesis Gaia", has been shared about 4,300 times and has also made the leap to Twitter. "Thank you for this tribute to waste and the absurd," said environmentalist Andreu Escrivà when he shared the picture in his account, which was also shared by 3,200 users.
As confirmed by Isabel Vicente, author of the blog, the photo was taken on a Carrefour Express in Salamanca. In fact, a few days ago, she went to the same supermarket and was able to check that the onions are still available in the same way.
The "frustration" caused by finding that so much plastic is used in food retail recently motivated this blogger, specialised in environmental issues, to create a campaign "that would draw the attention of consumers." This onion is just one of the many examples collected under the hashtag #DesnudaLaFruta; an initiative promoted together with Patricia Reina and Fernando Gómez, of the blog "Vivir sin plástico".
"I have also seen a bunch of parsley in a plastic tray, aubergines wrapped one by one... This is totally unnecessary packaging, because the skin of fruits and vegetables is sufficient for their protection," highlights Isabel Vicente. Along the same lines, Reina and Gómez ask themselves: "Does it make any sense to pack fruits such as mandarins, oranges or bananas in styrofoam trays?"
In Vicente's opinion, consumers should avoid buying them as "the first step in stopping such initiatives." The blog "Vivir sin plástico" recalled that "our consumption habits have a huge impact on the planet [...]. We don't realise that we are using a practically indestructible material as a merely disposable object."