Canadians On Track With Recycling

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See this bag? It used to be a plastic shopping bag. The drugstore has re-usable ones right under this self-cashier and guess what? It still has the drugstore logo. So there. Support the environment and advertise your logo simultaneously. Capitalism is the bomb.

I’m impressed. It looks like Canadians have embraced life with no plastic, at least grocery plastic bags. There are two kinds of shoppers. You have older Canadians who prefer to pull shopping carts they bought many moons ago, long before the government said plastic is no good for the environment. Then you have the younger generation that keeps re-usable bags in the car or handbags.

Grocery stores and drugstores seem to be taking the lead because they give us free re-usable or cloth grocery bags. Well! Some charge 35 cents but we can’t complain, if it’s a bag we can use over and over again. I had a little fight with Google and combed the mall looking for headphones with a USB, for the Google phone I bought under financial duress. I found one at Telus and they asked me if I wanted a bag for my purchase.

How much? I asked. They laughed and said it was free. They can laugh as much as they want. Call me prudent. I’m also realistic. There’s nothing free under the sun. Everything has a price. It’s like a man saying I love you. Instead of saying me too, the right answer should be: I don’t volunteer on the first date.

I digress. Where was I? Shops and phone manufacturers are giving us all these lovely re-usable bags. Right? It is a wasted effort if we don’t use them, if we don’t know where they are when we need them for emergency shopping. You have at least two favourite handbags. Each should have a re-usable grocery bag. As for that mess in the trunk/boot, fold the re-usable bags nicely and store them in a bigger bag.

Nonqaba waka Msimang

Executive Blogger

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