Plastic For All

Paper or plastic? A simple question that every consumer and cashier in America knows by heart. It's a question of personal preference that reflects a little about each consumer. That simple little question waiting at the end of a line doesn't exist here though. There is one choice and only one choice and that is plastic. It seems at times that maybe the plastic industry is paying the bagboy/girl additional money for each bag they use. For some unknown reason plastic is the answer to everything and the more the better. If there is any attempt to just say no to the plastic bag you are bombarded with awkward smiles and a look of pity. The bagboy/girl gives you a "oh, if you only knew look" and tries to sneak your single item into a plethora of plastic bags as if it's for your own good. While we have painstakingly broken the plastic cycle through repeated explanations, confused looks, and an investment in reusable bags many others are losing the fight. The typical story goes like this: A woman goes to the market and buys tomatoes and eggplants from vendor # 1 so the tomatoes are placed in 2 plastic bags and the eggplants are placed into 2 separate plastic bags. This seems excessive but probably reasonable to many of us. The same women then goes to buy a single piece of ginger from vendor # 2 so this means 1 more plastic bag. The rule is every item must have a plastic bag. This is probably a little funny but not necessary to many of us. The women then decides to purchase rice at vendor # 3 so this requires 3 plastic bags. Once again excessive but not unreasonable, right? Our woman of purchasing then goes to vendor # 4 to buy some fish which means 4 plastic bags since fish is wet and smelly. The women then goes to purchase chicken broth bullion cubes from vendor # 5 and this means another plastic bag (maybe at this point it could be added to another plastic bag but the bags are free). The final stop for the day is to purchase shampoo and toothpaste from vendor # 6. ASIDE: Thanks to a brilliant marketing genius somewhere people can purchase shampoo and toothpaste in single use sachets which means more profit for the company, a higher cost per unit of product for the consumer, and more trash per unit of product. The best part is this marketing strategy was developed for developing countries where people can't afford to spend a lot at once but this also means there spending more over time and they have no infrastructure to deal with solid waste. Anyways the women purchases her shampoo and toothpaste that creates more plastic per unit of product and gets 2 more plastic bags (these could be added to other plastic bag but it's not the way things are done). After a day of shopping and purchasing enough food for maybe two days she accumulates 15 plastic bags plus associated trash from the single use sachets. The worst part of all this is unlike in America where we can hide our trash through sanitary landfills and an expensive solid waste management scheme the people here have no option so the trash is either burned, buried or just tossed aside and it finds its way into the rivers and oceans. This is a problem believe me I've swam through it and walked through it. However, I have saved my favorite plastic bag story for last just to prove how much plastic bags are loved here. A couple of weeks ago we were at the market on a Sunday. Now Sunday is the biggest market day of the week and we usually avoid it at all costs but we were looking for fiddleheads for dinner and somebody told us to go on Sunday because everything is for sale. Well we didn't find any fiddleheads but we did meet a guy that was selling ducklings. Somehow Rebeka and I got into a discussion concerning if we could raise one in our apartment. As we discussed the proposition before us I watched the vendor shake the box of ducklings every time they fell asleep. After a good shaking the ducks would start chirping again and a whole lot of new customers would come over to take a look. We made the decision not to buy one but another customer decided to buy six ducklings and guess what? It takes 2 plastic bags to hold six live ducklings. Yes, for some reason plastic is the preferred packaging material of live animals. (Reasonable? not really. Ethical? um, no. Excessive? yes. Good way to treat an investment? once again no. Necessary? no. Funny? Somehow yes in a I can't do anything but laugh sense.) After seeing somebody drop six ducklings into two plastic bags and tie them shut I have a real curiosity to purchase a puppy here. What if?

No situation is too difficult to handle when you have Vermont maple syrup, pancakes, and fresh bananas