Grocery Stores That Stopped Plastic

Tall Grass Prairie Bakery, anchor store at The Forks.

Some stores in our neighbourhood are climate change conscious. Clap for them. We have the bakery, the drugstore nearby, and the corner grocery store. No more plastic bags. They’ve gone back to the brown carry bag, you see in vintage movies.

That consciousness can extend to event planners. They can include compact grocery bags in the conference kit that holds the agenda, T-shirts, pens and other promotional gifts. I have more than five shopping bags the size of an envelope. They balloon to pumpkin size once I put vegetables, olive oil or rice. I got them from conferences.

Most families in north America have shopping carts they pull around. They also have shopping boxes they stack in the boot/trunk. That is for family shopping. The folded shopping bags in your computer bag, handbag, gym bag or phone pouch is for emergency shopping.

We always say, I’m not going to buy anything.  Guess what? We remember we need something. Then we dash into a store and come out with plastic bags.

School bags. Kids should also have folded shopping bags in school bags. They can use them for things mummy asked them to buy on the way home. They must understand at an early age that we are in trouble, and we’re trying to arrest climate change, though belated.

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.