Item: 33 plastic bags
Plastic bags are usually stored underneath the kitchen sink, where more and more of them get stuffed in over time. A plastic bag here and there is one thing, but to have the collective that I sometimes have is completely unnecessary. Considering I started from 0 when I moved in about 3 months ago, 33 bags might not seem excessive, but how long before it is?
Accumulating plastic bags is the default mode. I have to fight against it constantly, in ridiculous ways. If I tell a sales clerk that I don't need a bag for, say, 1 tube of toothpaste, the clerk will often question this: "You don't? Are you sure?" Or in a checkout lane I might successfully fend off 1 person who comes along to put the toothpaste in a bag just to have the next one come along and see the toothpaste unbagged and rectify the situation, so it becomes an exercise in repetition: "I don't need a bag...I don't need a bag...I don't need a bag." Bagging things is, after all, their job.
Another example: last week at a grocery store I bought 2 things: a carton of eggs and a small container of yogurt. Neither of those purchases was embarrassing to me, so I think I could have just carried them out of the store myself without a bag. Or, if a bag was necessary, couldn't those 2 things have easily fit in 1? But no, they decided that the yogurt needed its own bag, separate from the eggs, which were in a double bag.
This is beyond reason, particularly when I have multiple shapes and sizes of other bags which can be used over and over again. I just need to remember to take them to the store, and I know Earth Day was a few days ago, but I'm vowing right now to do this.
Another alarming thing is the amount of general trash that I, as 1 small household, generate in a day. I'm disturbed, too, about the increasing trend toward everything being disposable: handy kitchen wipes - use it once, throw it away! disposable pan liners - just throw them away when you're done cooking and you don't have to do dishes! Pretty useful, no doubt, but isn't this just contributing more to the massive piles? I'm pretty sure there was a time when even the scraps and rags of things got used for something. The number of people on the earth and the way we live these days in relation to the environment make anything that I can do seem insignificant, which, by some weird logic, is probably why I don't try to do more.
I know I missed last night - this was mostly due to my not wanting to disturb my peacefully sleeping houseguest by sitting up late and typing.
Accumulating plastic bags is the default mode. I have to fight against it constantly, in ridiculous ways. If I tell a sales clerk that I don't need a bag for, say, 1 tube of toothpaste, the clerk will often question this: "You don't? Are you sure?" Or in a checkout lane I might successfully fend off 1 person who comes along to put the toothpaste in a bag just to have the next one come along and see the toothpaste unbagged and rectify the situation, so it becomes an exercise in repetition: "I don't need a bag...I don't need a bag...I don't need a bag." Bagging things is, after all, their job.
Another example: last week at a grocery store I bought 2 things: a carton of eggs and a small container of yogurt. Neither of those purchases was embarrassing to me, so I think I could have just carried them out of the store myself without a bag. Or, if a bag was necessary, couldn't those 2 things have easily fit in 1? But no, they decided that the yogurt needed its own bag, separate from the eggs, which were in a double bag.
This is beyond reason, particularly when I have multiple shapes and sizes of other bags which can be used over and over again. I just need to remember to take them to the store, and I know Earth Day was a few days ago, but I'm vowing right now to do this.
Another alarming thing is the amount of general trash that I, as 1 small household, generate in a day. I'm disturbed, too, about the increasing trend toward everything being disposable: handy kitchen wipes - use it once, throw it away! disposable pan liners - just throw them away when you're done cooking and you don't have to do dishes! Pretty useful, no doubt, but isn't this just contributing more to the massive piles? I'm pretty sure there was a time when even the scraps and rags of things got used for something. The number of people on the earth and the way we live these days in relation to the environment make anything that I can do seem insignificant, which, by some weird logic, is probably why I don't try to do more.
I know I missed last night - this was mostly due to my not wanting to disturb my peacefully sleeping houseguest by sitting up late and typing.
posted by Karen at 7:40 PM
1 Comments:
If you are concerned about items being bagged when you shop for only an few items, consider getting a couple of the mesh bags that are very common in Europe. They fit easily in a purse or pocket and expand to great size. With a couple of them, you wouldn't ever have to get those plastic bags. Another alternative is getting a canvas shopping bag such as they sell at Trader Joe's. We really do not need more trash.
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