Paper or Plastic

#paperorplastic  #blogschmog  #randomthoughts

Paper or plastic?  I’ve probably been asked that 1500 times or so and my answer is always the same… "plastic’s fine”. “Plastic’s fine”…when I say it, it’s like I know plastic is NOT fine but I’m kind of shifting the blame onto the bagger.  Like, “hey…if that’s what you have to do then I guess I’ll put up with it.  I mean, it sure wouldn’t be MY choice but if plastic is what you’re pushing, then I guess it’s “fine”.  Really, you’re only giving me two choices here and I can’t lie, I really don’t know if paper is a good choice or a bad choice.  Next to plastic it sounds like it would be a more environmentally acceptable choice but then I think, they’re killing trees to make the paper, so is that really a good choice?  Kill a tree or pick a plastic bag that I’ll see stuck in a tree on I-55 as I fly past the ever growing pile of rubbish buried North of Fairmont city.  Nothing says welcome to Illinois like 250 feet of trash.

So yeah, plastic’s fine…plastic’s…I really don’t think that’s even a word but that’s the way I say it…plastic’s. 

Yeah and please use as many plastic bags as you can.  That six pack with the easy carry handle…bag that shit…on second thought, double bag that shit, we don’t want it to break!  Yeah, I bought deodorant on my grocery trip, put that in its own bag.  We don’t want any grocery/HBA cross contamination. 

Now I’m not the greenest guy in town but how about we put a pile of recyclable bags at the end of the checkout and offer folks paper, plastic or recyclable bags for an extra $5.  I know I may be the exception but I would def pay the extra for the recyclable bags.  In fact I’d probably pay it over and over because I’d forget to bring them in on the next trip and I’d be too lazy to walk 50 yards to the car to get them.  So the store would make a little more money, there would be one less plastic bag in the tree where Fairmont golf course used to be, the checkout boy would feel better as I wouldn’t push the “plastic’s fine” guilt on him and I’d feel better about my bag choice.  Win-win-win-win.