Happy (Belated) Earth Day

And the prestigious 'Funny Because It's True Earth Day Award' goes to......Whole Foods Market!

After announcing that they would do so back in January, this past Tuesday on Earth Day Whole Foods officially ended the use of disposable plastic grocery bags at checkouts in every single one of their 270 stores across the globe.

Let me be clear here: there is absolutely no reason why every single store in the world doesn't adopt a 'no plastic bag' policy exactly like the one so boldly being adopted by Whole Foods, or at least implement some sort of policy with a similar spirit (something along the lines of limiting the number of plastic bags per customer, or providing financial incentives for using alternative bags, etc.).

For more than a year now, my fiance and I instituted a 'Say No To Plastic Bags' policy on ourselves, and the results have been excellent. About 98% of our shopping is done with the use of cloth bags or no bags at all; the 2% of time when a plastic bag is used, it involves the kinds of plastic bags that can and will be reused many, many times in the future.

And one more item to address for all of the cashiers out there. I see you've already ripped that plastic bag out of the metal plastic bag holder thingy and you're all set to use it, but when I tell you "You know what, I don't need a plastic bag, I'll just carry it out", and you respond with "Oh...(blank stare)...well, I'll give you one anyway, just in case", and, as my insides begin to boil as I contemplate in exactly what "case" I'm going to need a large plastic bag to carry a two-inch ChapStick (one that is itself housed in a plastic container sealed in a plastic wrapper), I decide to simply respond with "well thanks anyway, but I'd rather not waste the plastic", and, just when I think I've finally won this epic struggle to NOT have a plastic bag crammed down my throat, you mumble "oh...ok", and then...THROW THE PLASTIC BAG AWAY...you, my dear cashier, make me want to lunge across that counter and smash your face in. If my options are 'take the plastic bag and reuse it' OR 'don't take the plastic bag and it gets thrown away', I'll take the damn bag! But, instead, how about you use your head and just put the plastic bag back on the metal plastic bag holder thingy and...brace yourself...use it for the next customer. How genius!

One step at a time, people, one step at a time.
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