I stopped at Festival North early this evening, something I typically do after a full day of work when my brain is still processing things. That wasn't the case today, so I had to wonder whether I had just missed the plastic bag recycling box right inside the door. I mentioned it to my husband after hauling the groceries in. "No, I'm pretty sure they just started that," he said.
Last time I checked, the only place that offered that amenity was WalMart, and it seemed more than silly to have to expend extra amounts of a petroleum-based product (gas) so that extra amounts of other petroleum-based products (plastics) aren't needed. If reducing the dependency on foreign crude can be spun into a matter of national security, then surely you can make a patriotic case for escorting those bags and newspaper sleeves into their next incarnation (as opposed to the waste-bin). Problem is, that still doesn't bring WalMart any closer to the coat-closet that doubles as the household plastic bag corral.
If it's true that, as Herman Hesse put it, "Only the ideas that we live by are of any value," then I think that it's also important to remember that if we want others to hew to those ideals, then it's best to make it painless--yea, even convenient--for them to do so. Recycling plastic is merely another of many examples.
