Eco Adaptations

We may soon see the end of drive-through fast-food as we know it around here - which is fine with me, I hate drive-through lines - but I don't know how Starbucks can go on without super-sized grande plastic drink cups. Seriously, fast food places are going to have to change their business model, and the whole atmosphere of their stores. In the past few years, single-use plastic shopping bags have been outlawed, and non-biodegradable food containers and utensils are going soon - plastic knives, forks, spoons and beverage straws, and plastic drink cups, styrofoam cups, bowls and take-out dishes.

I carry a bamboo spork and knife in my purse, and I guess soon I'll have to bring along a re-usable cup, too. I keep shopping bags in my car, and bought some re-usable mesh produce bags, which I usually forget to carry with me (along with my grocery list, which I leave behind on the kitchen counter).

The plastic bag-ban has been inconvenient because I've always used plastic grocery store bags for my kitchen garbage, rather than buying disposable plastic bags to fill up with garbage then throw away. It takes about a week for me to fill one, mostly with coffee grounds and fruit and vegetable scraps, which are too wet to put in a paper bag. Now I'm using plastic bread or produce bags, but I'll have to find a better solution soon.

In my old job we sold large, decorative re-usable shopping bags for $1.99 or $2.99 or so, and we charged $.08 for big brown paper shopping bags at the cash registers - a state-mandated fee. Many customers argued about the bag-fee, and sometimes when I asked a customer at check-out if they wanted a shopping bag for eight cents, they would say no. Then they would watch the register display as I totaled their sale and ran their card. At the moment the charge went through, they'd say "oh wait, you know, I do need a bag . . ." I once heard a manager ask a customer "do you have eight cents?" but usually I just gave them the bag for free. In fact, I got so tired of the hassles that I stopped asking and charging for bags at all. Over time I single-handedly messed up the store's inventory and re-ordering, and we ran out of shopping bags just in time for the holiday shopping season, except for the expensive decorative gift bags. I'd like to think this made customers regret giving me trouble, but I doubt it.

I'm glad I don't work retail anymore. But I suppose next they'll outlaw bubble wrap.