‘Green’ Gets Even More Annoying

The Inquirer ran a column from Lynne “Theo” Ratliff yesterday about local supermarkets phasing out plastic bags (or offering you 5 cents if you use your own bag, et cetera).

And, what do you know, Ratliff is against it. I think. Because she doesn’t drive a car so she should get to cover the Earth in plastic bags. Okay, that’s not really the point

When the first Whole Foods market opened near my home, each cashier had a bagger. I marveled at how baggers taped and cushioned my parcels so nothing got damaged when I wheeled my shopping cart home. (I don’t have a car, which qualifies me already for being “green.”) [Summary of long graph to save space (and be green!): The three grocery stores in Center City want you to use your own bags and Whole Foods has eliminated plastic bags.]

The laziest cashiers seemed the most vehement about asking customers if they’d brought their own bag(s). They cut the number of bags they had to pack by loading them up to the tippy-top. Save a tree, but not my back.

I agree it is important to live in harmony with our planet, and we could be more frugal in our bag use. But plastic just works better for me. Paper bags are tough to carry on a long haul, especially for someone already being pro-green (and frugal) by walking instead of driving. Paper bags are also useless when it rains.

Effing lazy cashiers. Don’t they know that Ratliff doesn’t have a car and is therefore environmentally superior to them?!

I can, though, think of at least one other bad thing about supermarkets phasing out plastic bags: It led to this column.

Paper or plastic: Are grocers going green or just pretending to? [Inquirer]