Recently I was in the U.S. shopping at well-known grocery and department stores and couldn’t help but notice how many plastic bags people were using for their items. I thought perhaps there would be a greater awareness of saving our planet in a well-developed country but was sadly disappointed. In all the places I shopped I told them, “no plastic, I have my own bags”. Then, since they saw me carrying nothing extra they would frown. However, a slow smile would fall across their face when I opened my purse and took out a neatly folded Chico bag no bigger than 2 x 4 inches. The bag actually folds into a small pocket with a drawstring and It can expand into a foot and a half square with wide straps which can hold up to 25 pounds. It is light weight and washable.
I appreciate the portability of these bags because they can fit just about any small space and I don’t have to leave them in my car only for forget to grab them when I enter a store….they are already in my purse. I’ve put everything in them from groceries to plants to animals (the small kind)! I feel so much better refusing plastic and kindly saying something about the condition of our landfills or keeping our earth less polluted. Most people are quite taken by the whole process.
So you can imagine when I went into a health food store and they started to put my items into plastic! I was so shocked and said my lines with as much calmness as I could. Surprisingly the cashier grinned and said, these are not your typical plastic…they are made out of corn and are biodegradable!!!! Needless to say I was pleasantly surprised.
Now I know about the peanuts that are used for packing which are made of corn and I’ve actually experimented with them to see if they melt upon contact with water. They do! What a GREAT concept. If anyone has unpacked a box filled with Styrofoam peanuts and had them scatter all over you can identify with the mess they make. It is a wonder to see corn peanuts melt with the first drip of water.
The plastic corn bags are from Trellis Earth Products. It would be a miracle if stores would start using these bags instead of the plastic. I know they only do so if the customer demands a change. So how about it? Are you brave enough to demand no synthetic plastic and instead use paper or corn plastic? Use your voice to change the world one bag at a time!
