Driving OTR semi trucks has been 90+ percent of my exposure to the US. While out west, I'd take every opportunity to restock my berth amenities. Being from Flor

Driving OTR semi trucks has been 90+ percent of my exposure to the US. While out west, I'd take every opportunity to restock my berth amenities. Being from Florida, I'd never imagined paying for a plastic bag in the process. I found it a feeble but amiable concept. I'd not be disappointed if my state adopted the practice. I've always been awkwardly before my time, and seldom redeemed. As a teen, I vituperated against recycling, suggesting a drastic overhaul of the system altogether, for high frequency low volume consumer product containers. Milk, big gulps, H2O, rice, whatever -- it should all be purchased through brilliantly designed, stalwartly sanitary vending systems in a world where we have heirloom water bottles and shopping bags from granpa, made to last and used for ages. That hasn't happened. I do my part though. This includes occasional confrontation. One example is what I've coined the Beer Birka. I sometimes purchase a single beer. While the degree of fervor on the clerk's behalf varies from indifferent to mortal combat, there is a bizarre assumption that the beer must enter a bag, for if not, some unspoken terror is imminent. In some cases, depending on the jurisdiction and endemic insanity thereof, the beverage must accordingly be veiled. In other territories, it's optional, but questioning is discouraged. There have been many occasions where I exerted eloquent dissent and rational resistance. Again, depending on the coordinates of terrain, reactions range from politely insistent to bellicose. I often remark that I'll accept the bag, just to spare the beverage from the inevitable beating implied, which would almost certainly affect the opening ritual upon arriving home, suds on the countertop and so on. Lost beer. I'm not a nudist, but most tinned products shouldn't excite a healthy person to the point of violence or moral crisis. And for fucks sake, there's a sufficient amount of plastic out there already. So why crusade for more? Just relax, and let people buy shit without invoking unsolicited waste. Back off, you deranged bastards! I'll take the bag and deposit it in back of the facility for you to retrieve after work. I'm willing to compromise. The petroplasticidal matryoshka paradigm extrudes far beyond though. Anyone east of the Mississippi has been asked, indirectly or point blank," do you want a bag for your bag, sir/ma'am?”. I often accept, because the difference between their religious artifact and the dwindling roll under my sink permits approximately equal utility, and so, a pile of dog shit or something else fits in just fine, for free.