Baggies, Bottles, and Boxes

       We are pretty vocal these days about two plastic products that MUST GO! We  herald stores and countries for their decision to ban plastic bags and we faithfully bring our cloth grocery bags with us to the grocery store (and, if you’re like me, forget them in the car). Some of us carry stainless steel or glass water bottles. We campaign and sign petitions on FaceBook, tweet our disdain for mega companies sucking up our aquifers to sell us plastic bottles of a product that should be a human right. We make a good attempt to recycle even though we all wonder if our carefully sorted stuff doesn't end up in a landfill somewhere anyhow. These campaigns and practices are all worthy, a start in the right direction…BUT…

I’m quite sure I’m not the only person who has noticed, plastic packaging is on the rise. It’s everywhere - fruits and vegetables, baked goods, individual packets for lunches, vitamins, batteries, coffee pods, beer carriers, tools, toys - the list is endless. Heavens, just try to get some toys out of their moulded nightmarish packages! And under that poured on covering -  teeny weeny plastic high heeled shoes, purses, dresses, action figures, capes, tiny guns. If I didn’t have a scissors or a knife there are many items that would remain in their packages forever.

We aren’t going to get rid of plastic anytime soon. It’s a good product and has innumerable uses in industry, construction, electronics. Just have a look around your house or office, even your patio.  - it's pretty much everywhere! Packaging though, that's another thing. There are other ways to package things, or not package them in the first place.

We have made a start. Bottles and bags are a beginning. I’m thinking our easy acceptance (forced really, there’s no alternatives in many cases) of plastic packaging may be the next “not really necessary”  plastic use to address on social media and in the marketplace. If stores had to take back their plastic packaging I suspect we’d see less of it. There are some zero packaging stores now. We need more. The need for convenience, for consumer and/or distributor, can be overcome by conscience.