The big bag dilemma goes on – paper, plastic or reusable?
These days, it’s very hard to go into any kind of shopping
establishment without engaging in the Battle of the Bag.
In the old days
– about a year or two ago – you walked into Macy’s or J.C.
Penney or Walmart, bought something, and the clerk put it in a
plastic bag and off you went with it.
The big bag dilemma goes on – paper, plastic or reusable?
These days, it’s very hard to go into any kind of shopping establishment without engaging in the Battle of the Bag.
In the old days – about a year or two ago – you walked into Macy’s or J.C. Penney or Walmart, bought something, and the clerk put it in a plastic bag and off you went with it.
If you were going to the grocery store, you might be faced with the momentous choice of “Paper or plastic?” And that is a trickier thing than you might think.
If you choose paper, you’re killing a tree. If you select plastic, you’re using up precious non-renewable oil, which is used to make plastic.
Also, plastic (as any decent eco-freak knows) does not break down easily in the environment, and if a plastic bag should blow into the ocean, it has the potential to choke sea creatures who might try to snack on it.
Since plastic bags make me feel three times as guilty, I started asking for paper, despite the tree-killing aspect.
But that was so 2008.
Now, I have reusable bags, some of which I have bought, others acquired. Some have store logos and some don’t. I have a lot of them, maybe 20. I’m not sure where they all came from. I think they’re reproducing in my trunk.
The only problem is, about 50 percent of the time, I forget to get the bags out of my car. When they are in your car and not in the grocery cart, it defeats the purpose of having reusable bags.
At least once a month, I go blithely into the store, start loading items in my grocery cart, and about halfway through my shopping list realize I don’t have the dang bags.
Then I sigh heavily and keep going because I need to go home and feed the dog, or the kids, or whatever. And I’ve already got stuff in my cart. I can’t exactly abandon the cart and go to the car. It’s usually too much to deal with so I don’t.
So when I remember the bags, they’re great. But even when I do remember them to bring them with me, sometimes they lead to a small power struggle between me and the clerk and/or bagger.
See, the clerks and baggers never hesitate when it comes to bagging stuff. They automatically place items in plastic bags after scanning them. It’s habit. It’s the way they were trained.
Many, many times, I’ve had to yelp, “I brought my own bag!” when I see the purchased item descending into plastic.
At CVS especially, they like to bag everything, even items that don’t need to be bagged. They’ll bag your gallon of milk, your six-pack of beer, your 10-pound container of kitty litter.
When I see this occurring, I try to be a good eco-consumer and say, “Gee, I don’t need a bag for that.” But when I do, the clerk looks confused. He or she eventually (and reluctantly) removes the item from the bag, and then doesn’t know what to do with the rejected plastic bag.
I’m now delivering a blanket apology to all you clerks out there who I’ve bothered with my requests to take items out of plastic bags. I know it goes against the grain, but I really am trying to cut down on all those unnecessary bags that seem to pile up at my home like snow drifts.
Yes, I’ve left you holding the bag. And as long as you are holding it, and not me, I’ll be happy.
