Absolute Garbage

A few days ago the woman ahead of me in the supermarket queue upbraided the poor underpaid kid behind the counter for asking if she would like her groceries packed in plastic bags. "No thank you! As you can see, I have bags!", and dumped her algae green Coles bags on the checkout. Having bugger all else to occupy myself with I had a leisurely survey of the contents of her trolley. A couple of litres of milk in a plastic bottle. A few packets of these, 15g portions of cheese in hard plastic cups. A thick clam shell-style container full of baby spinach. And -- this is my favorite bit -- a roll of small plastic garbage bags. You know, the ones that are about the same size as the ones the poor guy behind the counter was offering her for free.

I'm all for reducing plastic consumption, but it doesn't begin and end with plastic shopping bags. Milk also comes in cardboard cartons; fruit and veg, by and large, do just fine unfettered by film, at least until you get home. And as for those fucking cheese portions... let's just say that my kids are going to have the daggiest lunch boxes in the playground. I'm quite capable of punching a piece of cheese with a novelty biscuit cutter and plonking it in a lunch box. And the spinach: there are two fruit and vegs stores in our area, and the one that sells spinach in the clam shell has been banned. A wee thin bag does just fine holding light leaves, I've found. Those other containers are the kind of thing you could keep a goldfish in, or use to bury your savings in the backyard.

So think, people. Use that great blancmange between your ears: if you're going to talk the talk, at least try to walk the walk, eh?