Crazy Train
So, as The Clam will tell you (with minor prompting), I have a tendency toward:
1. impulsiveness
2. OCD (not scary OCD, just quirky OCD)
3. minimalism
4. legalism
An interesting combination, to be sure. I try to keep it in check, but of course I end up doing things like...oh, let's see... downsizing my washcloth collection to include only 10 (minimalism and legalism), and then getting upset because they are not all the same color (OCD), and going out and buying 10 new ones that all match (impulsiveness) and then not being able to sleep because I just spent $35 on new washcloths because they weren't all the same color and now I have 20 washcloths instead of 10 and so I have to sort through them again, AND of course I have wasted $$$ so I want to keep the ones that are the wrong color because, after all, they're FINE really, they're just not the right color (I think that's where the train goes off the rails temporarily). So then they sit in my drawer unused for a few months until I come to grips, and send them to the Sally, because I'm being silly and selfish and hoarding wahcloths when low-income people could use them.
Multiply that by, oh, I don't know, most areas of my life, and you begin to see: it's hard being me. Anyway, this has positive and negative aspects...the negative ones usually relating to money that I wish I hadn't spent on crap I don't really need.
So I spent a few hours cleaning up/cleaning out my storage room (which has been christened "The Scary Bad Room") last weekend. I organized my tools into one place, I threw away a bunch of junk, I washed the floor, etc. Ever since, I have been highly focused (obsessed?) about one thing.
*****IMPORTANT THING FOR YOU TO UNDERSTAND******
I think recycling is stupid. Not "I'm a Republican so I say 'Screw the Earth'" stupid; I think it is one of those "fixes" that allows people to behave completely irresponsibly because "I recycle!" (Like the morons in Hollywood who drive hybrid cars, so they clearly are superior to the rest of us schlubs. Apparently the batteries in hybrid cars are made with nickel, and the plant that makes a lot of the batteries is in Sudbury, Ontario. Google it and see what wonderful things that plant is doing to help the environment. Be prepared to freak out - it looks like those po-mo "what if there was a nuclear holocaust" movies from 1982.)
Recycling costs energy. Lots of energy. I'm not a science nerd, but: all the trucks that pick up your recycling aren't being pulled by unicorns. The recycling plants themselves are major pollutants - they aren't powered by fairy dust.
Don't call the Recycpo (that's the Gestapo for Recycling). I still recycle. I just recognize that:
1. It's not the magical solution to our woes that everyone likes to pretend it is
2. The ACTUAL QUOTE from the WW2 era was Reduce, Reuse, Recycle (and, as far as I remember, they were in order of preference)
So, my first goal is to reduce. Reduce the amount of garbage I throw away (or even recycle), reduce the amount of junk that I buy, etc. I also try to reuse wherever possible.
Anyway, all of this is my way of introducing my new OCD obsession. While I was cleaning out the Scary Bad Room, I discovered that I have a pest problem. Plastic shopping bags. (Or carrier bags if you are in the UK.) They are everywhere, and they are breeding! I hate them with a passion. Now, I'm not talking about the nice shopping bags you might get at Hudson's/Marshall Field's/Macy's/Whatever the hell it's called this week. I don't shop often enough to acquire too many of those. I'm talking about the crappy, cheap, flimsy bags you get at supermarkets and drugstores and the like. First of all, you can only fit 4 things in a bag, so you end up with 10 bags of groceries. Second, they have gotten so thin that they rip if you sneeze on them, so you have to double-bag unless you WANT your cucumbers rolling down the driveway toward the street. That's 20 bags. A week. Sometimes more.
I swear to you that I have 7,128 plastic shopping bags in my home. It's ridiculous. But they are usually not recyclable (in my experience, the ones that are recyclable are the ones that are actually WORTH reusing, while the flimsy ones aren't) and I feel guilty throwing them away (I don't know why; it's not like landfills were perfectly fine until the plastic bags started showing up). So I keep them and reuse them as much as I can, but clearly not enough.
That's when my complete addiction to British TV niggled at my brain and said, "I have a better answer!" Why not buy a few of those nifty European string shopping bags, which can be reused until they fall apart. Take them with you and you will at least no longer be adding to the problem. I checked them out on the internet - they are available in the US, they come in all sorts of fun colors, and they are about $6 each.
So... am I crazy? Is this the stupidest idea ever? Part of me keeps saying, "Why would you spend $20 on shopping bags when you can get as many as you want for free at Krogers?" The other part of me says, "Yes, but they are junk, both literally and figuratively." Plus wherever possible I try to walk to the grocery and drugstore, which means that I am walking back home with bags that could break at any moment, which is quite annoying.
What say you, dear readers? Any CONSTRUCTIVE comments? Is this my quirky, fun OCD coming out to play, or is this an actual good idea that I won't regret at 2 in the morning for weeks afterwards?
1. impulsiveness
2. OCD (not scary OCD, just quirky OCD)
3. minimalism
4. legalism
An interesting combination, to be sure. I try to keep it in check, but of course I end up doing things like...oh, let's see... downsizing my washcloth collection to include only 10 (minimalism and legalism), and then getting upset because they are not all the same color (OCD), and going out and buying 10 new ones that all match (impulsiveness) and then not being able to sleep because I just spent $35 on new washcloths because they weren't all the same color and now I have 20 washcloths instead of 10 and so I have to sort through them again, AND of course I have wasted $$$ so I want to keep the ones that are the wrong color because, after all, they're FINE really, they're just not the right color (I think that's where the train goes off the rails temporarily). So then they sit in my drawer unused for a few months until I come to grips, and send them to the Sally, because I'm being silly and selfish and hoarding wahcloths when low-income people could use them.
Multiply that by, oh, I don't know, most areas of my life, and you begin to see: it's hard being me. Anyway, this has positive and negative aspects...the negative ones usually relating to money that I wish I hadn't spent on crap I don't really need.
So I spent a few hours cleaning up/cleaning out my storage room (which has been christened "The Scary Bad Room") last weekend. I organized my tools into one place, I threw away a bunch of junk, I washed the floor, etc. Ever since, I have been highly focused (obsessed?) about one thing.
*****IMPORTANT THING FOR YOU TO UNDERSTAND******
I think recycling is stupid. Not "I'm a Republican so I say 'Screw the Earth'" stupid; I think it is one of those "fixes" that allows people to behave completely irresponsibly because "I recycle!" (Like the morons in Hollywood who drive hybrid cars, so they clearly are superior to the rest of us schlubs. Apparently the batteries in hybrid cars are made with nickel, and the plant that makes a lot of the batteries is in Sudbury, Ontario. Google it and see what wonderful things that plant is doing to help the environment. Be prepared to freak out - it looks like those po-mo "what if there was a nuclear holocaust" movies from 1982.)
Recycling costs energy. Lots of energy. I'm not a science nerd, but: all the trucks that pick up your recycling aren't being pulled by unicorns. The recycling plants themselves are major pollutants - they aren't powered by fairy dust.
Don't call the Recycpo (that's the Gestapo for Recycling). I still recycle. I just recognize that:
1. It's not the magical solution to our woes that everyone likes to pretend it is
2. The ACTUAL QUOTE from the WW2 era was Reduce, Reuse, Recycle (and, as far as I remember, they were in order of preference)
So, my first goal is to reduce. Reduce the amount of garbage I throw away (or even recycle), reduce the amount of junk that I buy, etc. I also try to reuse wherever possible.
Anyway, all of this is my way of introducing my new OCD obsession. While I was cleaning out the Scary Bad Room, I discovered that I have a pest problem. Plastic shopping bags. (Or carrier bags if you are in the UK.) They are everywhere, and they are breeding! I hate them with a passion. Now, I'm not talking about the nice shopping bags you might get at Hudson's/Marshall Field's/Macy's/Whatever the hell it's called this week. I don't shop often enough to acquire too many of those. I'm talking about the crappy, cheap, flimsy bags you get at supermarkets and drugstores and the like. First of all, you can only fit 4 things in a bag, so you end up with 10 bags of groceries. Second, they have gotten so thin that they rip if you sneeze on them, so you have to double-bag unless you WANT your cucumbers rolling down the driveway toward the street. That's 20 bags. A week. Sometimes more.
I swear to you that I have 7,128 plastic shopping bags in my home. It's ridiculous. But they are usually not recyclable (in my experience, the ones that are recyclable are the ones that are actually WORTH reusing, while the flimsy ones aren't) and I feel guilty throwing them away (I don't know why; it's not like landfills were perfectly fine until the plastic bags started showing up). So I keep them and reuse them as much as I can, but clearly not enough.
That's when my complete addiction to British TV niggled at my brain and said, "I have a better answer!" Why not buy a few of those nifty European string shopping bags, which can be reused until they fall apart. Take them with you and you will at least no longer be adding to the problem. I checked them out on the internet - they are available in the US, they come in all sorts of fun colors, and they are about $6 each.
So... am I crazy? Is this the stupidest idea ever? Part of me keeps saying, "Why would you spend $20 on shopping bags when you can get as many as you want for free at Krogers?" The other part of me says, "Yes, but they are junk, both literally and figuratively." Plus wherever possible I try to walk to the grocery and drugstore, which means that I am walking back home with bags that could break at any moment, which is quite annoying.
What say you, dear readers? Any CONSTRUCTIVE comments? Is this my quirky, fun OCD coming out to play, or is this an actual good idea that I won't regret at 2 in the morning for weeks afterwards?
posted by The Big Seester | 2:58 PM
6 Comments:
Well, first off, I will take Kroger bags. I use them for trash can liners in the bedroom and bathroom, as well as kitty-scoop receptacles.
Second, I think the bag idea is only good IF you will use them. If you will be embarrassed about using them, or (like I would) forget to bring them to la supermarché with you, then it's a waste.
Just my opinion.
I've been offline for a few days. As "A Tale. . ." is at the top of my alphabetically arranged bookmarks, I'm afraid you'll be the recipient of days of not blogging. . . :-)
First, about reduce, reuse, recycle. I do recycle, but I am highly skeptical about the recycling industry. Remember when recycling first started on a grand scale? Everything needed to be separated. The Germans recycle all sorts of stuff, and I had to separate every single piece when I was visiting there. Back home, I'm suspicious when Waste Management comes for my stuff and tosses it all into the back of the same truck. I was still living in Chicago when a huge city-wide effort started, and thought it was so lovely and convenient that everything went into the same bags. And it turned out that Chicago was scamming the citizens: they weren't separating anything at a recycle facility. All the effort put into sorting recyclables from the rest of the trash was for naught, as it all ended in the dump anyway.
Don't get me started on the holier-than-thou Hollywood types and their environmental practices. A few years back, I was reading an article where they were praising themselves that all the modern art they were collecting was from recycled materials. I thought the praise was odd because it was NOT about being a minimalist. It was still all about being a consumer. No one was scaling back and choosing NOT to collect. No, but they are "so wonderful" because all the STUFF they were collecting was from recycled materials. Oh, goodie.
About those plastic bags. I've thought of purchasing the reusable bags. I think I'll only be motivated if they start to charge for plastic bags the way they do in Ireland. BUT I do reuse most of my plastic bags, for smaller trash cans throughout the house. So, I'm rather anti-paper bag. Of the two grocery stores I shop, one uses paper bags by default. You have to ASK for the plastic. And they get uppity when you do. But if I take the paper they're pushing, I don't use those and they end up breeding in my house. The irony is that, in the end, so much stuff gets packed into the landfills that it all mummifies. Whether it is non-earth-friendly plastic, or the biodegradable plastic carrier bags I was given while in Britain (but haven't seen in the US), or the paper bags my current store pushes on me: NONE of them will break down. This is something I learned from a very environmentally-conscious friend, so I'm not just trying to get out of using the paper bags!
I say, go for the resuable bags. I think Kroger even sells them, right? And then let me know if you recommend it . . .
Clam,
I know you will take Kroger/CVS bags, which is fine, but which still means that I have to store them until I get them to you, and then you have to store them.
Also, it was my plan to get a few string bags and keep 1 or 2 in the car and 1 or 2 at home. That way, no matter whether I walk or drive to whatever store, I will have bags at my disposal (no pun intended). They would also serve the purpose of limiting the amount of stuff I buy (like your pretty darn smart using a basket instead of a cart at Krogers).
I might end up having to pack the bags myself though...
CWAM,
I wasn't aware that Kroger sold bags that were reusable...I'll have to look into that.
Ahem. I too, wonder about throwing everything in together in the "recycling" bin. It seems a little too convenient to me.
And, I do use the little Kroger-type bags in my bathroom trash, but here's the thing: I'm a single gal living in an apartment. I really only have a kitchen trash and a bathroom trash. (Plus kitty litter related trash). In order to get the trash out on a semi-regular basis, I take it out a couple of times a week (otherwise, stinky stinky!) but I almost always have extra room in my kitchen bag. So, I do what any person who wants to REDUCE does: I dump the contents from the bathroom trash into the kitchen trash, without throwing away the liner. I only throw away the liner if there has been something goopy in the trash (and I flush used Kleenex, so that doesn't count). So, I MAYBE go through 12 bags a year this way.
Of course, people with families cannot necessarily get away with this, but I can, and why would I throw away a perfectly reusable Kroger bag inside of a kitchen garbage bag if I didn't need to?
I had noticed that they sell "Carrier Bags" in Europe. (I believe they also do at Aldi's, but I've never shopped there.) I sometimes think it will happen here, but here's the thing: if the consumer has to buy bags, the consumer might buy less stuff, and we can't have that. So we will give the bags away, and encourage them to purchase ever more crap they don't need...
Sigh. Everybody wants to change the world, but nobody wants to sacrifice anything...I feel another post coming.
I forgot one thing!
Kill a few birds with one stone:
I have a friend who CROCHETS these plastic bags together. You use up a bunch of plastic bags, and they are formed into a new, reusable bag. The bag looks very much like those Euro-string bags.
How industrious are you feeling???
CWAM,
You're KIDDING!!
How involved is that? I am not a handy person with this type of stuff...
Let me know - how hard is it? How much time does it take? And, the BIG question: is there a pattern involved, because I can't read patterns...
TBS
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