Lots of larger Brazilian supermarkets have started the policy of not providing plastic shopping bags. The customer is expected to bring their own reusable bag. The populace is still adjusting, especially since it varies from store to store.
I occasionally shop at a large supermarket in larger Theófilo Otoni to buy the items we crave but can’t get in our cozy little backwater. This supermarket always has a huge pile of used boxes by the registers and signs to encourage customers to reduce and recycle. I respect them for that.
But I guess the bagging clerks didn’t get the memo. On my last shopping trip in a moment of laziness I didn’t go rush and grab a used box–after all I only had five items and could actually use an extra bag in the house. Before I could blink the bagger had swiffed my few items into multiple layers of plastic and was just finishing layer #3 when I grabbed it from her hands.
That’s 7 bags for the five extremely lightweight items shown below. Oh the shame…
As an added kick in the butt, today I also went to peel the label off that little trash can and read the fine print. “100% VIRGEN” (plastic, I assume). Great, because I wouldn’t want it to be using any recycled resources. I like my plastic to be made of the purest VIRGEN petroleum possible. Let´s make sure that stuff comes straight from the center of the earth; I´ll accept nothing less. Seriously, folks, I’m absolutely stupified that that’s their idea of a positive marketing message. Oh the double shame….
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Once I forgot an item I had just paid for because the bagging clerk was putting every single thing in a different bag. I am a bit relieved that our supermarket offers delivery because then all the groceries are put into large plastic crates, left at your door step (or table top) without all those extra plastic bags (there are only this many that are reused as garbage bags) 🙂
The plastic bags around here get triaged–reusable for market sales, garbage bags (big), garbage bags (small). Even then, it’s easy to get swamped! Our local grocer delivers too, but I doubt they’d do the drive all the way out to the farm! 😉