Look at me I’m green
Posted by Matthew SokoloffSep 18
I truly hate being left out any new fad.
In elementary school I had more pogs then the kid next to me. In middle school I insisted on owning a pair of JNCO, the brand that made them so myself and the kid next to me could fit in them. And of course now, I own an iPhone.
Recently I’ve become alarmed that I am being left out of the latest fad, going green.
I mean these day’s everyone seems to be going green from large corporations and politicians to schools and soccer moms.
But what was I doing? Sure I turn my lights off when I leave my house but that’s so 1990’s.
Yesterday I caved in.
I bought a Green Bag.
Yes literally a bag that is green.
You see a couple of weeks ago my friend Joey alerted me to these little discussed eco-friendly contraptions. He informed me that when he goes grocery shopping, he uses the green bags as not to waste plastic.
I coughed it up at the time and made fun of him.
Yesterday I got curious.
I was standing in the checkout line at Publix and there it was in front of me was the Green Bag. There was no price tag and I really wasn’t very familiar with the Green Bag program.
I was too bashful to ask for the details of the program, but I had some hunches.
I thought maybe the bag is free or only a quarter. They just want you to use it to help the environment. Perhaps every time you use the bag you get discount. Maybe the discount is only good on organic products. Or some other shameless promotion.
You see I was terribly wrong and disappointed when I purchased the $1.50 bag only to discover a nice note about me helping the environment.
Now don’t get me wrong I am more than happy to help the environment and I will use my Green Bag proudly (it is trendy after all) but I think that they should provide an incentive to help.
I know what you are thinking, “Why do you need an incentive to help the environment?”
Because it provides that little nudge to get a lot of people to act. Our government offers incentives to corporations for “being green” it would be nice for a corporation to do the same.
I do applaud Publix for taking a stand and providing the bag at a fairly low cost.
Another company that started a “bag the plastic bag” initiative is IKEA.
They charge customers five cents for every plastic bag and sell their big blue reusable bag for 59 cents. (Maybe I should have held out for the IKEA bag…it is more trendy).
Somehow I’m disappointed with the “going green” fad, but maybe I shouldn’t be surprised. After all having pogs got old quickly (especially when the banned them from school) and JNKO didn’t last long, more of a hassle than they were worth (again banned from school), so why would I expect to be satisfied with the “going green” fad? (no word on if schools are banning it).
At the very least someday I can tell my kids “When I was their age I was a part of the “going green” revolution.
Yeah, I’ve bought two of them - plus a cotton one from the Publix on Colonial. I refuse to throw away plastic bags, and as often as I’m grocery shopping now, I figured it’d be best to invest in some of these. Now, I’ve just got keep them in my car so I remember to use them.
On the subject of being green, I also replaced my living room lamp with a CFL.
I know, I’m such a hippie.
hmm I didn’t even think of that…a couple years ago I convinced my mother to purchase CFLs. She hated them and the only one left was in my room. Apparently I have been “green” for quite some time!
And everyone loves hippies…isn’t that a requirement for being a graphic designer?
Haven’t went green yet myself. I remember when grocery chains used to have plastic recycling bins at the front so you could return the plastic bags from your previous shopping trip. I think this is much better, but it will take time to catch on with the masses. Maybe they should do like Sam’s or Costco and not bag anything to enforce the green bag concept more.
I have purchased several reusable bags from our local grocery store Ralph’s. They sell for $1.50 of which part goes to charity. They even give you 5 cents off your total for each bag that you use. Eventually they pay for themselves. It’s great.