Last Updated on August 5, 2015
I am again in the US of A. Specifically, in Berkeley California.
I’ve noticed yet another oddity about the cultural installation better known as The American Dream. Perhaps it’ll trigger some consideration to read this, perhaps not.
I’ve just been to a number of shops. Trader Joe’s, and a large organic food store. These days plastic ain’t hip. It’s cool to use paper, and even cooler to bring your own bags. Personally, I figure that bringing a reusable bag is the more life-giving option, yet it’s not always so easy to remember and sometimes it’s just not convenient. Looking at what people have in their hands as they step out form the checkout I gather that for many plastic, paper, or bring your own is not even a consideration they give much attention to. Nothing new about that.
What has struck me as rather odd, however, is this. Every single paper bag is “double bagged”.
In New Zealand I have seen people request for a double bag if the load is heavy or they have an extra long way to walk such as to the house as opposed to the car park. Yet here it appears to just be the norm. At both Trader Joe’s and the Berkeley Bowl it was routine for every bag to be “double bagged”. Okay, at the Berkeley Bowl it was routine to use plastic, and they’d only use paper if asked to. But once that request was made, two bags would be used, doubled up.
So here we are, people attempting to do the “right thing”. Attempting to be environmentally correct, and yet the American propensity to over use and over consume and over waste sneaks up from behind and bites the eco-conscious on the proverbial butt.
If 100 million paper bags are required each year for people to get their food to their car and then to their kitchen, and if all of those are double bagged, that means a total of 200 million bags end up being used. Kinda odd in a world and country where people lead themselves to believe that the world can’t support 7 billion people to live healthy and abundant lives. Of course, this double bag situation is just a small icon of the cultural madness that is prevalent here.
I wonder if anyone has compared the environmental impact of plant-based plastic bags with 2x brown paper bags?
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