4 ms·
All of these worries churn, like any other fashion. Through a cycle of short attention span, and craving for novelty. 5-10 years ago in the grocery store line
by StevePerkins 7y ago
All of these worries churn, like any other fashion. Through a cycle of short attention span, and craving for novelty.
5-10 years ago in the grocery store line, myself and half the people in front of me were bringing our own reusable grocery bags. I feel guilty acknowledging this, but we all just seemed to... stop. Because it was a mild hassle, and the novelty wore off. I can't remember the last time I've seen someone with with their own bags, and I imagine that younger store clerks would be confused by them.
We're still concerned about plastic (that worry comes and goes like a pendulum). We just got bored and lost our attention span for one of the most direct things we can do to reduce plastic.
10-15 years ago, myself and most of my political peers were more upset about Guantanamo Bay than plastic or climate change. Nothing ever changed there, but I can't recall the last time I've heard it mentioned. The average anti-war protestor of the post-9/11 years probably understands little to nothing about U.S. action in Syria over the past decade.
- sturgill 7y agoNot necessarily a universal solution, but our family primarily shops at Aldi. You have to pay for bags, so you either bring your own or use the empty cardboard boxes from stocking the goods.
- dannyw 7y agoI love reusing empty cardboard boxes. They are useful for around the house too.
- dannyw 7y agoMost Australian states require grocery stalls to charge for bags. While a nice idea, instead of reusing my grocery bags as bin liners, I have to buy bin liners as well as the occasional bag when I forget. The net result is more plastic waste for me.
- SECProto 7y agoHow does this result in a net-increase in plastic waste? Were you somehow getting the exact number of bags you needed to use as bin liners, and now you buy extra?
- fierarul 7y agoSome of these eco-rules result in inconveniencing your life and increasing your costs with at most a zero change of the overall plastics use.
- dannyw 7y agoI usually had no more than 3-4 disposable plastic bags saved up as bin liners. Now I have to buy bin liners, as well as the occasional reusable plastic bag. The reusable plastic bag has 4x the plastic content of the disposable ones.
- SECProto 7y agoWhat happened to the other disposable plastic bags you took home? Presumably your garbage output was less than your grocery input? And yes, having to buy a new reusable bag if you forgot yours is frustrating. Which makes it memorable, and less likely to happen again - though that may be more of a personal thing. If you have a lot of extra reusable plastic bags, perhaps you could push your local grocery store to put in a "take a bag/leave a bag" box? To ensure they get put to good use
- IceSentry 7y agoMaybe it's the area where you live, but where I live it would be weird to not have reusable bags with you. Pretty much everyone has them. I live close to montreal and we have a lot of environmentally conscious people here.
- SECProto 7y agoI agree - I've lived all over eastern Canada, and most people everywhere use reusable bags. The only people I've observed who consistently don't are those in for a single bag/a few items