May 7th, 2008 - Plastic bags in New Jersey
I’m starting to understand the bans on plastic bags even more than I used to. Want to get the bigger picture yourself? Go visit New Jersey and do the following simple tasks.
1. Buy some bagels. As is typical elsewhere, they will be put in a paper bag. Atypically–I hope!–the baker will attempt to put said paper bag inside a plastic bag. As he was taking our payment, I noticed that he was getting out a plastic bag. At first, I didn’t say anything because surely that bag wasn’t for our bag. Why in the world would I need a bag for my bag of bagels? I finally did say we didn’t need the plastic bag. “Are you sure?” “Yes, I’m sure.” My husband, a NJ native, chimed in, too! We talked about it on the way to the car. His hypothesis is that since there are many seniors in the area, they might have trouble holding on to the crimped paper bag. However, we aren’t seniors and were perfectly capable of carrying a dozen bagels in the original bag.
2. Buy a gym bag. A fairly typical bag, perfect to carry by the handles or over your shoulder. The check out clerk will pull out a really big plastic bag for you to carry your new gym bag to the car. We declined the plastic one. She was quite surprised, like the baker, and tried to push it on us. Eric politely said that he didn’t need a bag for his bag and would just carry it. Neither of us understand this one.
At least the sub shop used a paper bag to put the entire sub order in, each sub of which is also wrapped in paper and put in a smaller paper bag. ::sigh::
On a related note, the reusable bags sold by grocery and department stores are a big hit. Even my mother in law has picked up a bunch of them and uses them for groceries. She likes the ones that are pretty. I forget who makes them–I’ll check at home as she sent us one at Christmas–but each one has a pretty design covering most of the bag such as a whale, the rain forest, a monkey, etc. Unfortunately, this brand is made of plastic–but it’s recycled and pretty heavy duty.