Yesterday I watched an 18-year-old grocery clerk literally bag up $50 worth of groceries in twenty-five plastic bags...
a can of tuna fish... a can of vegetables... thrown aside and swoosh, the quick, mindless grab to the next bag off of the metal holder... onto a package of chicken, swoosh, next bag, a box of cereal, a box of rice, a package of cereal, swoosh, a container of milk, swoosh, a container of juice, swoosh, swoosh, swoosh, swoosh... it didn't stop. I was stopped in my movement, thoughts, everything. My heart rate was even up as this kid, this kid who one day will grow up to be a functioning adult in society, carelessly threw at least 25 plastic bags in this couple's cart, full of enough food that even if he was forced to use plastic bags, anyone could safely, without ripping, probably fit into 6 or 7 bags... and I'm being generous here.
What was I doing in the line you might wonder? Well, I actually was standing with my receipts from the bottle/can deposit around the corner from recycling our apartments worth of beer bottles, water bottles, etc from the past few weeks.
wow. I mean, could that be any different from what this kid was doing? what is going on in our wasteful world, and why is everyone too busy to stop for one second and see what they are doing, take responsibility for their actions (more on that later), responsibility for themselves in the bigger picture of life, and for their belongings. I for one completely understand how easy it is to fill up the trash bin, employ your arms and legs in the daunting 2-minute task of reaching in and pulling out the trash from your already plastic bin, and toss it aside either on your curb or in another outside bin... and then we think of it no more. Not once do most people think about their waste, where its going, and most importantly, how long it will sit there for years, decades, centuries.
I realize that the age of plastic has made life that much easier, and I am not about to throw out all plastic items, and start weaving baskets to pack my lunch, or curse all modern technology, but there has come a point in our society where it is just time to slow down. what is going on? what is the god damn hurry we are all in?
I live in New York City, one of the fastest paced places on this Earth, and after much consideration (mostly because I feel myself jumping on the over-charged treadmill of the island and dashing from here to there, pushing my, getting frustrated with strangers for standing in my way) that I finally stopped and wondered... what the hell am i in such a hurry for? there will be a next train, my job is not going to care either way if i arrive 3 1/2 minutes later than I just might have if I pushed down that poor old lady to grab that train door as they came sliding together.
seriously, what is our hurry? Where are we going in such a rush? 99% of the time, we are not going someplace that life or death requires us to forget our neighbors and think in such a single-minded way.
I digress, but it really comes from a place of being in a rush to go absolutely nowhere. All of this insane technology that has popped up in the past few decades was initially designed to make life "easier" to help us work more efficiently, to give us more free time... where is all this free time? if that is true, than we should be able to take that 5 extra minutes a day to perhaps recycle our things, to be less wasteful, to decide if there is a better option than carrying our 10 groceries in 25 double-bagged plastic bags in the backseat of our car to drive 1 mile home.
About a year ago, I sent out a small campaign to family and a few friends about using reusable basg for shopping purposes, or not using a bag at all. I'm going to push for that again, because as I said before, I'm not against technology, advancement, intelligently making things a little easier or using plastic as a necessary way to do something better, but it has gotten out of control. I realize that tupper ware and plastic bags etc make for a happier person, because then we dont have to wash to pesky dishes but we never think about the consequence that tupper ware is so amazing because it NEVER BREAKS DOWN. Sure, short term, how amazing! Long term, your great great great grandchildren are going to still have piles and piles of un-biodegradable plastic bits that never actually biodegrade, they just break into smaller and smaller pieces until they seep into our ecosystem... i mean, that's just plain gross.
The plastic bag epidemic has gotten out of control, and I do not think that the whole "eco friendly" trend is a trend. I think peope have started to open up their eyes to the wasteful way of living. Maybe 100 years ago it was ok, but we are an over populated world who can't keep up with its growth in a sustainable way.
Here's a bomb website to a great affordable place to buy some resuable bags...
www.reusablebags.com
or just check out your grocery store and buy the great canvas ones for $1.00. Think before letting that 18-year-old double bag your 5 items into 10 bags... maybe you'll rub off on him... maybe not, but at least you are doing your part to be more aware and less wasteful. I'm just asking that poeple simply take 2 seconds of 'big picture' thinking and a little forethought before they grab all that uneccesary stuff.. a little goes a long way... especially with 6 billion people on the earth... that's a lot of plastic bags.
