BAG IT…OR NOT? GET $1 BACK?
It always seems to me to be a big, darn shame! I know you will all agree with me but, then….of course we don’t control it. And I am sure that many of you feel as I do; we consumers are prisoners to the whims of the whole supply chain from manufacturers to retailers. We are, as usual, helpless to change the status quo. What can we do? We DO feel guilty about the waste and certainly DO want to practice responsible consuming.
You know what I am writing about here. I am discussing PACKAGING! Every item we buy and consume is packed in its own plastic and paper containment vessel. From the everyday fruits and veggies we buy in the supermarket to our sofa we buy in the furniture store it seems that every item is packed in three layers of plastic. That is plastic made from petroleum based chemicals. We are discussing HUGE carbon footprints. In most of the US and the developed world a large portion of this packaging is thrown into the town dump. Now let me give you a really good example of excessive packaging. Even a lowly product such as bottled water is sold in a plastic bottle packed in a cardboard box covered in plastic. According to Gina Shaw in her article “Rethinking Bottled Water” on WebMD.com
(http://www.webmd.com/diet/
TWO MILLION TONS!!! That is an incredible amount of lost resources polluting the earth for hundreds of years. This kind of crap has got to stop!
OK. I am trying to do my share. I now carry around a folding shopping bag with me. When I shop for food I take the items without additional bagging. I try to put fruits and veggies in the bag directly. I have no use for those thin “throw away” plastic bags that can suffocate anyone stupid enough to pull one over his head. What really happens to these throw away bags anyway? Are they the bags I see floating in the water at the beach? Or, are they hanging in the trees in the parks?
Anyway the point of this is to let you know that starting in JULY 2010 we have instituted our own Asia Rustic eco-change policy in our store. Although we have always had an in-store policy to reduce packaging; most of our merchandise is displayed on tables and shelves with no packaging at all! Now we are extending our low packaging approach to a NO BAG policy by offering each and every customer a ONE DOLLAR BACK for every sale if you bring your own shopping bag. That’s right! ONE DOLLAR BACK for each customer who brings and packs his/her own shopping bag. The idea here is to lessen the ecological impact of packaging, so come on in, shop all our SPRING-INTO-SUMMER SPECIALS (GOING ON NOW!) and don’t forget the BAG!
