Yesterday, I bought new sheets of watercolor papers and frozen Kuchay Pork dumpling. Walking towards the terminal station, I felt suddenly guilty for letting the cashier lady put the watercolor papers on a brown bag. I thought that I could have just put it on my bag instead. Then, a side of me doubted if that will make a difference if the production amount of brown bags are still the same, whether you use it or not. But I thought that maybe, if demand is low, businesses will not avail it then manufacturers will lower the production amount.
Added to that guilt is me holding down a plastic containing the frozen Kuchay Pork dumpling. Ugh, I left my cloth bag at home. Another side of me doubted if using a cloth bag makes a difference if the production amount of plastic bags are still the same, whether we skip plastics or not. But I thought maybe, aside from the effect of lower demand to production, we lower the chance of plastics scattering around or dumping on unknown places since we keep them safe on factories or business drawers.
Caring for the environment requires a conscious effort. In these consumerism era, it is so easy for us to buy stuffs and dispose of them without thinking of their environmental effect. Caring for the environment is a conscious effort to think of the impact of your actions to the environment. On my story, I should have made a conscious effort to think of the environment when the lady packed my watercolor papers - making it a conscious effort until it is innate to us and we automatically responds to anything that can destroy the environment. I also thought that asides from individual making a conscious effort, businesses should take their part on thinking of the environment. One way is to keep reminding customers that they have a choice in terms of using brown bag or plastics, asking them if they intend to use a bag? I remember that in Taiwan, items are automatically not packed and you have to tell the counter that you intend to buy a plastic bag. It's a good strategy to subconsciously remember that we have a choice.
To start with this conscious effort, I will put on whichever bag I'll use two cloth bags - big and small :)
PS. There are still some debate whether we should use brown bag, plastic bags or cloth bag but whatever is better, we should make a conscious effort to reduce using both the brown and plastic bag and reuse as much as we can our cloth bags.
