This is the second in a series of cycling-related rants – today I’d like to talk to you about the subject of plastic bags.
They are utterly ubiquitous. Buy any thing from any shop, and the assistants will unthinkingly place your purchase in a disposable bag which has a realistic number of lifetime uses of one. This is in contrast to, say, a decent bike pannier which can be used (for all intents and purposes) forever.
Why on earth is it so normal to be so wasteful? What would happen if we all discarded our furniture after a single use? Or clothes? Or lovers?
I suppose that fundamentally, a bag from a shop is free publicity for the business. Customers become walking adverts. Why they are happy to do this though is a mystery. Everyone finds buses and subways that are plastered with ads objectionable, so why are the same people so bloody willing to become ambassadors for their boutiques of choice?
I only bring this up because I was shopping (once again) at the local supermarket, and noticed that further to their carwash-related “environmentalism”, they’d plastered the store with optimistic and cheery slogans like “re-use a bag today and help the planet tomorrow!”.
Talk about re-arranging deckchairs on the Titanic. I mean, let’s face it, when everyone finally figures out that they can no longer use their cars to get around, having burnt all the available fuel, re-using bags is going to be the least of their worries. It’s like setting a pack of dogs loose on a poor fox, and feeling self-satisfied at your own charity because you held a couple back. The precise number of rabid canines makes no difference whatsoever to the poor fox; any number greater than zero poses a potentially terminal problem.
This is serious business, because people who might otherwise consider doing something genuinely positive for the planet (like, for example, giving up their cars and flights abroad) are given the illusion that by doing something as simple and easy as re-using plastic bags they are making a real difference. Newsflash – you’re not really helping, and you’re still giving businesses free and unsolicited advertising. Shill.
Domestic transport takes up an astonishingly high percentage of fossil fuel use. Much of this could be saved if people gave up their cars – and what better way to get around instead than by bike? I wonder when this message will infiltrate big business’ environmental repertoire…?
Tags: cheery slogan, discard furniture, fossil fuel, free publicity, plastic bag, rearranging deckchairs on the titanic, shill, tesco, walking adverts
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