It's Raining Plastic

It feels so good to be settled into my new digs. And now that I’m unpacked, I get to do the fun stuff...decorate!

Saturday afternoon I decided to head over to Crate and Barrel to check out their TV stands. One of the things I like most about Crate and Barrel is their use of sustainable materials. It was raining pretty hard, so I was excited to get into the store – not only to see what they had but also to dry off.

I was greeted by a rather severe woman who thrust a plastic umbrella bag at me. If you’ve been reading my blogs, you know that wasn’t the smartest thing to do. But I remained polite.

“No, thank you,” I said and walked inside.

She chased after me. “You must take one!” I must? She obviously didn’t know me. “I’m sorry, I don’t use . . . plastic bags.” The words slithered off me like the rain off my coat.

She followed me. “Miss! MISS!” I kept walking, pretending not to hear. “You MUST take one!” she said again, but much firmer. I repeated that I did not use plastic bags, again, much firmer. She stopped following me.

But I was miffed. Why didn’t they have an umbrella stand? Or even just rugs! Plastic umbrella bags are almost as big of a waste as those little plastic plugs that Starbucks uses to keep your coffee from spilling.

I was in a rare condition for me – too pissed to shop. I left and headed off to Bed, Bath and Beyond. They, too, offered me a plastic umbrella bag which I, again, refused. They didn’t follow me around the store. But I felt like I had committed a crime. Everywhere I turned there was an angry employee, glaring at me and my wet umbrella.

I thought about this all weekend. The number of plastic bags that are used for what, 20 minutes? Wasted. Ending up in landfills or that floating plastic island in the Pacific.

The next night I was flicking channels, thinking about my wet umbrella, when Andy Rooney came on.

His rant was about the ice bridge that was holding up an iceberg the size of Connecticut and was about to break off. He said it’s got to go somewhere, and asked if any of us want something the size of Connecticut to hit us.

He said that while some who call themselves conservationists are, well, conserving and finding new resources, others are doing nothing, sure that things will just “work out.”

But it was his closing line that got me. “I’m a conservationist who uses a lot of trees and oil. I’m the problem.” (60 Minutes clock ticking sound.)

It got me because just that afternoon I had gone to the corner store without one of my bags, and took a plastic one (which I hated). Despite being high and mighty about my plastic bag non-usage, I was also the problem.

So I am now that much more aware and more committed than ever to searching for new ways to solve the problem . . . that I’ve become. (Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick)