Now, intellectually, I KNOW why. But I still think.feel/say it countless times a day. Remember some decades ago? I do. There wasn't that much. There really wasn't. Stuff came in cans. In glass. In paper. But oh the miracle of plastic. It's so light! It's so cheap! We can save money using it instead because it's so cheap and it weighs so much less that we can save money in shipping too! So I know. I'm not being naive. It's just My Lament. How far does it have to go before the rubber band snaps back? I don't know how much more time we have.
And you can hardly avoid it. There are things I feel I need but there they are, in a plastic container. We really have to search for the alternative. There is a lot I will not buy, because it's in plastic. But those of us who do that are few and far between. (And already reading this. Hah.) Why can't more people think about it? How do otherwise perfectly intelligent people still accept a plastic bag at a store? How can otherwise perfectly intelligent people NOT realize they need to carry reusable bags? Reusable bottles? How do otherwise perfectly good parents still indulge in plastic crap for their kids? It's that whole "recycling" thing, isn't it? I've discussed THAT to death, that it is really a complete fallacy, a sham, a pretty lie we tell ourselves to sleep better. What is it going to take to change this? How much cancer, how much waste, how much sickness, how much death?
I do not have the answer. So, daily, I lament, Why does everything have to come in plastic? And why does everyone have to be so cavalier and blithe about it? How is this not at emergency proportions?
The "unincorporated" areas of Los Angeles County just had the plastic bag ban come into being. Why not all of LA? Why not the whole country? And why do people get angry and fight it like it's some infringement on their personal rights? You have the right to bear plastic... nope, not in the Constitution. Why DO we have to even BAN things instead of people knowing enough and better to just NOT do it?
Yeah, I know, I'm just ranting at this point. It's where I am right now. I'll be better sometime. Surely. Right? Right. Just about the time I go a whole day without seeing someone carrying a plastic bag home from a store.
I'm about a year late to chime in but I share your conundrum. I've given up no less than 15, brand name products because they come in plastic or have too much packaging. Some of theses products I been buying for over a decade.
ReplyDeleteLast week I asked the produce manager, at my local grocery, why all the green, red and yellow peppers were now individually wrapped in plastic bags. He said, "because that's the way the come to us." This is madness!
I'm not sure what it's going to take to get rid of all this plastic packaging but I've started educating everyone who will listen.
Never too late to comment!!! You know why? Because a year later, nothing has changed!
ReplyDeleteI guess trying is all we can do... we are doing what we can. Thank you for being part of the solution.