You Don’t Have to Wait Until You’re Told to Recycle (Although Some People Seem to Think Otherwise)

Hey, kids — it is a terribly slow news day on the reusable bag front, unfortunately. Not that there’s no news at all, but I feel bad reporting nothing but more and more opinions about the Seattle decision.

That said, I do like a post I read this morning regarding California’s struggles with the reusable bag proposition, for the simple fact that it strongly counters a common opinion that shops and consumers would more readily get behind a proactive recycling program than a tax or ban.

As much as I would love to believe that a full-blown marketing and public relations campaign would not only educate every Polk County citizen on the importance of using canvas or other types of reusable bags for shopping, but also spur in them a burning desire to actually do so, I can’t persuade myself to be that optimistic. Here’s why:

Even the store clerks don’t seem to buy into the notion that reusable is the way to go. Or that too many plastic bags make it into the landfill each year.

It’s true, of course, and how are consumers supposed to get behind something if the stores they go to push in the opposite direction? But just saying so isn’t enough, and this story would be nothing without evidence:

A couple of months ago, my husband and I bought a pair of leather flip flops from the Beall’s in the North Lakeland Best Buy shopping center. I had forgotten my reusable shopping bags in the car, so I told the sales clerk that I didn’t need a bag (it was just one pair of flip flops, after all). The girl told me “we have to give you a bag.” Perhaps, but I don’t have to accept it. I repeated that I didn’t want a bag and grabbed the shoes as my husband paid. The girl acted positively pissed.

On Sunday, my husband and I rode our bikes to Walgreen’s to get some milk and some soup that was on sale. I told the girl as she was putting the milk in a plastic bag that she didn’t need to double-bag it. After all, we were going to put it in our backpacks. She pulled the milk out of the bag altogether. I thought, that’s fine, I really don’t need the bag. Then she took the unused bag and threw it in the garbage. I made her pull it back out and put my soup in it. I didn’t want the bag. But I quickly did the math and decided I’d rather her give me the bag because at least I would recycle it, rather than throw it in the trash.

So my question is this: have either of these scenarios ever happened to you? (Perhaps not exactly to the dime, but close?) If the answer if yes, then do you truly believe that stores — and, as runoff, consumers — would embrace and actively participate in more extensive recycling and waste reduction programs? And if the answer to that is yes, then I ask you: why haven’t they already, then?

Monday, August 4th, 2008 at 9:13 am and is filed under The Daily. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.