Bag Hag
It takes millions of individual decisions to make a difference. No small decision should be scoffed at or thought of as being insignificant. Here is mine.
I have made an environmental decision this year and boy am I finding it difficult.
I have decided to stop accepting plastic bags in supermarkets. I have worked out that if I were to carry on accepting them then given a family shop once a week I would use about 500 bags a year. Factor in the once daily trip to the little local shop for stuff I’ve forgotten (booze) and we could easily add another 100. Given that I am currently 38, and that I might live for another 40 years (probably longer, females in my family are like Michael Myers in Halloween- we just won’t die no matter what you do to us), then we’re looking at about 25,000 bags that I personally have used, sent to landfill.
The reason I’m finding it difficult is nothing to do with me; flipping saint that I am. I have a big sturdy range of shopping bags that I take with me on every outing but shop assistants do everything in their power to blindside me. None more so that the Unsmiling Hag at the local shop.
She knows I want to put the shopping in my own bag, she sees me put my big bag on the counter, she has seen me come into the shop with my big bag, she has served me a thousand times where I have said, “Can I put this in my own bag please?” She is my environmental nemesis.
I want to confront her and vanquish her (with a plastic bag, if necessary).
She will put my stuff in a placcy bag if it bloody kills her- she wants to break me and she wants to bag me. God only knows why.
She whips my tins and bottles in there like a speed fueled demon as soon as they are scanned. She gets at least two/three items in the bag before I can say, once a-bloody-gain, “Can I put this in my own bag please?”
I am this close- watch me THIS close, to screaming like a possessed banshee in her face so that her hair blows back like in cartoons, “ I don’t want a bag, you KNOW I don’t want a bag, YOU KNOW ME! I come in here every day- I never want a bag. NEVER! Let’s agree that I DON’T WANT AND NEVER WILL WANT A BAG!
“Yes, maybe you think I’m a freak, maybe you think I’m a self-important she devil with the cheek to bring in a Bag for Life. But maybe it’s YOU that is the Bag for Life, eh? Maybe it’s yooooooou!” (I will point in her face at this bit)
“What, are you on flipping commission from the bag makers?? Stop doing it, just stop! I have my own bag. See it? My own reusable bag. You know I do. Stop the fucking nonsense.”
But I don’t. I just say “Can I put this in my own bag please?” and watch her snort slightly as she un-packs the hastily secreted goodies from the plastic bag and reluctantly hands them back to me like this is the first time she has met me.
One further thing, I am involved in fundraising for a school trip. The next event? Bag packing at the local supermarket. I am coming out in hives just thinking about it….
Today’s post is in honour of Blog Action Day which this year is concerned with the environment. You can find out more at:
www.blogactionday.org
And it maybe a small thing, but can I make you think about not using plastic bags anymore please? Go on…go on…go on.
