Thank you to those of you who chose to share with me your struggles with the neither plastic nor paper challenge. I too have had my struggles.
1. This feels a lot like entering a confessional to confess my sins but this month, despite my best efforts to be "bag free," twice, I allowed the employees at the Pakistani take out place to package my already over packaged food (a sin in itself) in a paper and plastic bag! I'm going to blame my weakness on the language barrier and the long line of hungry customers I did not wish to hold up while I explained my intentions. However, I have since made it clear to them that I bring my own bag and since we are regular costumers who are now immediately recognized, most probably as "the freaks who bring their own bag," I don't foresee a problem in the future.
2. On Sunday morning, who doesn't love a freshly baked New York Bagel? Our local bagelry, like most New York Bagelries, is packed on Sunday mornings. The employees are very efficient at moving the long line along. On 2 occasions I wasn't fast enough to let my server know that I did not want a bag and it was already packaged. At this point, I very carefully, so as not to wrinkle my bleached paper bag, removed my bagel and kindly returned the bag to the woman at the cash register. She gave me an odd look, then crumpled it up and tossed it into the trash!!!Ughhh! Does that count as a sin?
Over the past ten years, I have grown accustomed to the weird looks and snickers I've gotten for refusing something that is "free." But really now, I thought we've moved beyond this notion. Oprah has even done a show on this! I guess this proves there is more work to be done on educating and hopefully inspiring others. I cannot wait until the day when saying no to paper and plastic is considered normal human behavior.
Raffle!!
Please share your struggles with the neither paper nor plastic challenge. Can you do it for 21 days? Would a nylon bag that folds into a 2"x3"x2" pouch and holds up to 25 lbs help? If so, please let us know. You can enter the drawing by posting a message or by emailing me at earthwatchers@yahoo.com. On May 28th I will select a winner of a nylon pouch, at random, so that we can challenge ourselves again from June 10th-June 30th(feel free to start sooner!).
For more tips and pointers for surviving the neither paper nor plastic challenge click here.
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2 comments:
I have a comment about plastic and paper bags from stores. I find I usually have uses for these bags. Rather than buy garbage bags I re-use these bags. Big ones in the kitchen and small ones in the bathroom. Our recycle pick-ups require newspapers and mail to be placed in paper bags and plastic items have to be placed in plastic bags. Rather than buy plastic bags for storage most store bags can be re-used. I do refuse to accept bags, especially when I have a good supply at home.
How efficient is the recyling of plastic bags. The other day I was at the drug store. I did not accept a bag but I had enough items that carrying them was a little inconvenient. How bad is it to have taken a plastic bag and then recycled it?
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