Did you know that almost everything you use that is plastic now has a biodegradable option? I've been blown away recently. I own biodegradable dish scrubbies, biodegradable garbage bags, biodegradable shower curtains... While it makes our containers or bags a little weaker because the chemical bonds aren't as high-strung, you can use an extra bag without guilt, knowing that those little bugs will be able to break it down. You could also argue that the downside is the potential to be more lazy - why clean the curtain? Toss it out because it'll soon be dirt!
But all in all my heart does a little race everytime I see the 'biodegradable' sticker on anything. I'm thrilled to see businesses making a new market for plastics - really, when it should be regarded as archaic that 'biodegradable' isn't the standard with our technology. We're walking around with phones that could almost raise our children for us and yet the plastic industry is still making products that they know will sit in landfills until those same phones are being given out for free...
The Netherlands is way ahead of us when it comes to the grocery bag. When my family spent a month in Europe we became avid consumers at the grocery store 'Albert Hein'. One night my sister and I did a quick bike-trip to Albert to pick up a few snacks, which ended up being an assortment of dutch chocolates, cute jam packets, baby stroopwafels, Nutella, and everything else that was in miniature and was edible. We came to the cashier, feeling quite pleased with our discoveries, only to find out that we forgot that there is no such thing as the transparent grocery bag in Holland. You bring your own or you buy... and since we had so many goodies, we could either stuff them into our coats and make do or put something back and buy the bag.
Well, we were determined not to make fools of ourselves, so we pretended like we didn't bring a bag on purpose. I stuffed my raincoat pockets with chocolate and little Hagelslaag packets, while Ali tried to shove numerous bags of dropjes into her tiny purse. The rest we balanced between our hands and the handlebars, and raced our way home as the rain began to fall.
I always think of those sturdy, dutch bags when I go grocery shopping. Holland is such a colourful country, and even its grocery bags represent its culture. I wonder if we can say the same? While certain regulations can control our ability to be 'eco-friendly', I continue to hope that people choose it by their own free will. There is something to gain beyond just the practical reduction of waste... there is also a cultural reward; a new colour within the daily grind.
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