Sinister Supermarkets: Paper AND Plastic

Upon moving to a new city, a nasty little plot revealed itself: my local supermarket asks not if unsuspecting shoppers prefer paper or plastic to bag their groceries, but gives them both! Brown paper stuffed into a redundant plastic bag makes some sense: the strength of the paper combines with the plastic’s benefits of water-proofing and handles. But it doesn’t make the kind of sense we peddle round here. Having established that neither paper nor plastic are particularly green options, it’s a dismaying trend to see both used at once. The solution, though, is as simple as it ever was: bring your own reusable bags. And if the overzealous bagboys should slip their disposables in anyway? Find a way to reuse them, too. [by KK]