Ideals Laundered and Pressed

It’s no secret that I despise plastic bags.

Aside from being made from petroleum or natural gas, they’re a threat to our environment. Whether they’re clogging storm drains, finding their way into rivers and oceans, or simply sitting in landfills, they are wrecking havoc on our planet.

The US goes through an estimated 100 billion plastic bags a year.

I’ve tried to be plastic bag free for a little over a year now. I carry a Chico Bag…a nylon bag that scrunches up into a small ball (www.chicobag.com) … and I’ve trained John to do the same. He’s so scared of me that now, when he forgets his bag, I’ve seen him walk through the door with an armful of groceries!

And yet even bringing your own bag is not enough. There are those establishments that insist you take their plastic, whether you want it or not.

For instance, the grocery store likes to put your meat into small plastic bags to protect leakage. At Subway (not the greenest place to begin with), my sandwich always seems to wind up in plastic before I can say anything. And then there is the dry cleaner.

I dropped my clothes off this week and asked them not to put plastic over my clothes after they were cleaned. It was an organic dry cleaner, so I didn’t think this would be a big deal.

The girl behind the counter looked at me, confused. I kept explaining what I wanted. Her manager made his way over to me. I pleaded my case again and he nodded.

Two days later, I picked up my clothes and, of course, they were covered in plastic.

I saw the same, nodding manager and told him that I had asked for no plastic. He ripped the plastic off and threw it away. I shrieked, “No! The idea was to spare the plastic, not throw it away.” He walked away, still nodding.

I stood there for a moment and asked the counter girl for the plastic the nodding man just threw away. Now she was really confused. I politely but firmly reached around the counter, pulled it out of the trash and left.

Now I was stuck with a giant piece of plastic, which, instead of going into a landfill or the ocean, was going into my apartment. It can’t be recycled and can’t be reused...unless I want the grocery store to wrap a side of beef or Subway to encase a six-foot sub in it.