Items collected Tuesday, September 30, 2008

I wasn't in a position to pick up much trash today, and couldn't pick up anything that was dirty. I picked up only two items.

Today's recyclable:

• 1 plastic bottle (Pepsi)

Today's reusable:

• 1 plastic carrier bag, in excellent condition

The plastic carrier bag came from the same store that yesterday's bag came from. Both bags were found within a block of the store, and were in such clean condition that I have to believe they had been discarded only a short time before I found them. Many people who shop there buy just a single item of snack food and consume it as soon as they get outside, and I suspect that most of the bags I find were tossed aside by such people.

What I can't understand is why the store owner doesn't instruct cashiers to ask customers, "Would you like a bag?" instead of automatically bagging every purchase. Whether or not the owner cares about the environment, reducing the number of bags given out would benefit the store's bottom line. I can understand making bags available to customers buying multiple items, as the availability of bags encourages customers to buy more, but there doesn't seem to be any point to a bag when the customer is buying a single item for immediate consumption.