BYOB... and the last B ain't for booze

Over the last 100 years, humans have moved from a cooking from scratch culture to a pre-prepared mentality, and facility has taken priority. Time is of the essence, and sense of taste and community has been sacrificed. Thinking about what and how I consume has inspired me to make the switch to reusable bags. Though this is a small step taken by one individual, I can already see the difference in my own habits, and hope to inspire others to take their own small steps too. The past three months' experience is distilled into the journal entries below.

February 3, 2016

The stockpile of reusable bags I try to keep in the trunk of the car seem to frequently get appropriated for other uses- carrying salt to de-ice the walkway to our house... bringing lunch or other supplies to work... All fine, but then they are then not where they need to be when shopping. Step one- Make sure they start in the car and then return to the car. I returned the Bag of Bags from the garage to their new home in the trunk.

February 10th

Thinking back to when I was working in NYC and spending much of my time travelling on public transportation, maximizing space and minimizing carried weight was very important, so it was tricky to find a way to consolidate and store bags along with everything I needed for my work day. Also, shopping for a large family requires even more bags, which means you have to carry many of them for groceries and other large purchases. I have placed three large bags permanently in my son's diaper bag, which is always with us when the baby is. They take up most of the space, but are now permanent fixtures along with the diapers and wipes.

I am finding that I have to actively ask store clerks to use my bags and monitor their actions to make sure that my purchases make their way into them. Some seem annoyed at my request, and others seem confused about why I would want to use my own. There have been a few times when I have the bags in my hand, mentioned that I have them, and while reaching for my wallet or taking care of the baby, my purchases are already in plastic before I can speak up again.

February 17th

I have been getting better at taking out the bags and speaking up that my purchases should go in them, both at the beginning of a transaction and when it comes time to load up. Even when this occurs, the cashiers sometimes place closed items in plastic and THEN into my bags, which I do not understand. At one of my grocery stores, they have a program to hire adults with special needs to bag up groceries. One time, I asked one of the ladies doing the bagging to forego the plastic bags in favor of my cloth ones, and she told me that she had to get rid of all the plastic bags by the end of her shift or she would get in trouble by her boss. I do not know what was said to her, but I wonder what (if any) guidelines are given when bagging up purchases.

February 24th

Grocery stores seem to be more willing to endorse reusable bags than other shops. I have noticed signage outside a few chains encouraging customers to BYOB, and a local farm store actually rebates customers 5c/bag they bring. I have been shopping there for quite some time, but have never known about this policy until yesterday, when I was loading up and the clerk asked me “oh, how many bags do you have?” I thought she was charging me for purchasing the store’s reusables, but instead she was rebating the check.

For some reason, clothing, home, and other non-food stores are less likely to understand NOT automatically bagging. Much of the prestige involved with clothes shopping in particular is the name attached to what you buy, and the bag your purchases comes in is often a badge of honor.

March

Though I always recycled my plastic bags, I found that store employees often did not know where the recycling bin for them was, or the location of the bin was hidden and largely inaccessible. Because of this process, I am now averaging only 5 plastic bags this week.

I try to carry reusable bags at all times, and have been getting better at presenting them loudly and proudly. I hand them directly to the cashier at the beginning, remind them to use my bags at their first reach for plastic, help with checkout to make sure they actually Fill the bags, and then deny any additional plastics when possible. This is a lot of maintenance when you have a toddler clamoring at the credit card machine or crying to get out of the cart, but it's getting easier.

April

I have been travelling a lot this month, and therefore had the opportunity to look critically at how other places shop. Conspicuous consumption is definitely a la mode in the United States, but I didn’t see many people carrying reusable bags in Europe either. I also noticed that when a vendor is selling to a tourist, they tend to add a lot more packaging both for promotion and protection purposes. When you are packing to be out in a new place for the entire day, it actually may be easier to carry one bag which can hold all your purchases instead of the multiple bags provided by the various shops.

May

From frustration to acceptance, it is becoming more of a habit to BYOB and therefore much easier to “just say no” to plastic. I believe that with the proper systems in place, anyone can make using reusable bags a habit, though more effort needs to go into educating the employees of stores to accept this practice. Something effective that I wish more clerks would do- when I forget my own bags, if they ask if I would like a bag for simple purchases that may not need them, I have the opportunity to say ”no”. This gives the consumer a choice, as well as a moment to think about that decision. It is my hope that as more chains can actually profit from reusables, they will encourage cashiers to facilitate this option.

Have you made the switch yet?