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Crow’s Feet Writing Prompt #77
The Rise and Fall of Plastic Bags
When they arrived, I thought they’d be here forever
When plastic bags appeared in stores, they were amazing.
Before plastic, we had paper bags without handles for our groceries. It was easy enough to carry one in each arm, but more than that was difficult. My parents used the Parcel Pick-Up feature where our cart would be tagged, we’d drive to the side of the building, and someone would load our groceries into the trunk. From there, it was trip after trip from the car and back to get them in the house.
Then plastic bags with handles started showing up. We’d be asked, “Paper or plastic,” by the bagger as the cashier rang the stuff through. Lots of people chose both paper and plastic. This made it so that heavy items didn’t feel too heavy and they didn’t burst through the bottom of the bag. Plus, the handles on the plastic bags made it easy to carry a few in each hand.
Very quickly, stores stopped offering the combo. It was paper OR plastic, not both.
But no matter. Most people chose plastic and the paper bags vanished.
The wastefulness hadn’t occurred to me back then. It was just the way of the world, to go shopping and throw out the plastic bags. I…
