Rambling: Bag It, and plastic

Late in the film festival, we saw Bag It, a film about plastic bags and other "single use disposable plastic" items. And, much to my surprise, we're still remembering it a week later. While we generally agree with everything that an environmental-message film says, we also generally let it slip our minds by the next day.

We're actually, y'know, changing behavior.  A little. And searching for ways to change it more.

We already usually use reusable grocery bags. But the next time we were in a grocery, we:

• Bought our milk in cardboard cartons instead of plastic jugs.
• Tried to buy plastic-free dishwasher detergent. It turns out that more, not less, plastic was involved; we'll try a different product next time.
• Tried to buy our clothes detergent in a coardboard box instead of the usual plastic jug of liquid. However, when we were forced to choose between scented in cardboard, and unscented in plastic, we went with the plastic. We'll have to do some searching for unscented in cardboard.
• Declined a bag when we realized that we'd forgotten to bring reusable bags, figuring we could just dump the groceries in the trunk.
• Later, in another grocery, paid money for reusable fabric produce bags. Goodness gracious.

We're also looking at things like shampoo bars, to avoid the plastic bottle. And breaking our Ziploc addiction by buying glass food storage containers. And considering the merits of paper or compostable or recycled trash bags. And waxed paper. And getting reusable stainless steel water bottles. And like that.

This might actually be a habit change. Or, it might just take us a week, instead of a day, to forget the message. We'll see.

Image: By Material Boy. Wikimedia Commons.