Carried away (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Carried away

11:48am Wednesday 16th April 2008

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I’m right behind the current drive to stop using… and creating… trillions of plastic bags which only end up clogging vast swathes of the countryside in landfill sites.
I’m more than happy to juggle a few lunchtime items - sandwich, yoghurt, even soup - and carry them the few yards back to the office rather than stuff them in yet another plastic bag.
It would only end up straight away in the bin, and begin its journey as a useless item towards that landfill and the 100-year process of breaking down into something vaguely useful.
A lifespan of ten minutes’ ‘usefulness’ followed by a century or more of trash.
The sandwich, yoghurt and soup are already wrapped in enough plastic as it is.
But it’s a struggle, sometimes, to resist.
Even for someone who does as little shopping as me (and, God knows, it IS precious little) it can be a struggle to resist.
On one venture into a small shop for some emergency fruit and veg supplies, I found myself having to - yes, having to. It was the only way, apparently - carry out a bundle of small plastic bags with my purchase.
What ever happened to paper bags, or recycled newspapers? I’m sure I remember donkey’s years ago having fruit and veg wrapped in old T&As when I was a nipper.
That way you get a bit of double recycling, and a natural material breaking down sometime before we have colonised Mars. And long before most of us will be fertiliser ourselves.
And why is it that many shop assistants look at you as if you’ve lost your marbles when you turn down their offer of a plastic bag to carry away the smallest of items that will fit in a shirt pocket anyway?
Like card shops, for instance.
You buy a card, usually already wrapped in plastic.
They stuff it in another plastic bag.
You get it to home or the office, take it out of the plastic bag, take off the wrapping, discard (excuse the pun) both, and post the card.
How insane is that?
Two plastic bags with a "useful" lifespan of moments.
Despite our best efforts, there still seems to be a mountain of the things pouring out of the top of our sausage carrier bag keeper on the back of the kitchen door.
I suspect a plot is afoot… but I just can’t figure it out.
More work needs to be done.. but not too much.
I need something to put my muddy boots in in the car, obviously.