Plastic Bags And Buying Vegetables



Using supermarket plastic bags for fruit and vegetables is partly responsible for the proliferation of plastic bags in oceans, rivers, flowerbeds, public parks, railway tracks and highways.
  It is possible to reduce the number of rogue plastic bags polluting the environment by simply not using them at source: where we do grocery shopping. 

I mentioned the importance of recycling at source in a previous blog, The Recycling Bible 8 March 2018. It will be hard initially because it needs a certain mindset like driving.  Safety is the key so we don’t engage in stupid behaviour like texting and driving, which could kill someone.
We are mindful of traffic lights turning amber, pedestrian crossings, roads full of herds of cattle or elephants out for a stroll, roads near junior schools etc. 

Not putting fruit and vegetables in a plastic bag is easier if it’s a few oranges, but a challenge if they are eight because the cashier’s scale is a little square that was designed to weigh them in a plastic bag.  A cashier was surprised when I put a few on her scale yesterday.  NO PLASTIC I told her. 

Supermarkets can adjust.  They have.  That is why they ask you if you need a plastic bag for five cents.  It means they are aware of environmental implications of their business.  There is a lot of plastic outside our reach, but ordinary grocery shoppers can do their bit, by recycling at source.  You don’t have to put the following in plastic bags, lettuce for example.  It is already wrapped in some plastic foil so, you don’t need a plastic bag for it.

1.       Whole pumpkin or pumpkin slices

2.       Onions

3.       Tomatoes

4.       Potatoes

5.       Bell peppers

6.       Carrots

7.       Oranges

8.       Bananas

9.       Pomegranates

10.   Kiwi fruit
You can think of many examples.  Getting rid of plastic is a noble idea by Greenpeace, Save The Arctic and many earth groups, but difficult to implement because it is about packaging, food in plastic containers so that it could shipped to another city, province or continent.

By:  Nonqaba waka Msimang.

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