I think someone's missing the point...
This morning, I stopped off at the grocery store to pick up food for breakfast. I forgot to bring the oatmeal I have at home, and I was in desperate need for some food this morning. Since Publix is on my way to work, I stopped by to get some breakfast-type food. Some of this will also be eaten for snacks, too.
At any rate, this Publix had the green canvas bags available. The one by my house has been out of them for some time. Since they're inexpensive ($1.20), and I can only fit so much into the bag my mother made of my old maternity jeans, I decided to purchase one. Besides, I figured with this bag, I'm less likely to get blank or quizzical stares from the cashiers when I go to the store. At least I'm using one of their bags, right?
So, with my trusty green bag in hand, I collected all the items I needed and brought them to the register. I purposefully placed the green bag before all other items, so that those items could be placed into the bag. Makes sense, right? Well, the girl ringing up my items grabbed a plastic bag and started putting the bag into the plastic bag. When she looked at me (I must have looked completely scandalized, or something), she asked, "Is plastic okay?"
"Um, could you put everything into the green bag?" I asked.
Then she looked at the bag that she just scanned, then said, "Oh, I guess I can do that."
[sigh]
How in the world am I supposed to Save the Planet if others around me are completely missing the point?
Comments
We're (finally) getting our IKEA here in a few months, and I really hope this one does what the Burbank location does: charge people a quarter for every plastic bag they use. I honestly think that if other stores would do that (namely grocery stores, as they are the biggest offenders), people would start to reuse their bags and begin bringing their own. But until the cashiers and bagging people stop automatically bagging things in plastic bags, I don't think things are going to change.
Even more aggravating are the trips to the store when I walk out with 10 items in 10 different plastic bags!
I would so prefer to bag my own groceries. In fact, when it's busy at the store, I often do! For one thing, like you said, I can equally distribute the weight. For another, I can minimize the number of bags I use.
I wish I could walk to the grocery store. We can't walk anywhere; it's awful. Have I mentioned that I think Florida is one of the least environmentally-friendly states?
You can check out your homes walk score here.
http://thetikioasis.com/2007/07/26/whats-your-walk-score/
It calculates based on where you live how walkable your home is to restaurants, shops and other services. I did our house and it is 0. Yours should be the same.