One thing that could be very loosely defined as "good" about the pandemic is that the charging of bags has gone out the window. I've been suspicious about the practice from the start, and today I'm completely against it for the lie it always was.
Keep in mind, I've been recycling for years. Environmental issues aside, it's the sensible thing to do when you live in the city. I even advocated for recycling laws as a part of MASSPIRG in the early nineties. The idea of stores getting rid of their plastic bags is a good one.
But that's not what happened, is it?
All they did was charge for paper bags they never charged for before while making bigger and heavier bags they could charge even more for us to use. Because companies can't be "environmental" unless they can find a way to make an additional buck off of their consumers.
Why didn't supermarkets just stop making plastic bags altogether and continue to give away paper bags for free? Maybe limit the bags if they didn't want people to go nuts? Why does Trader Joe's charge for brown bags after years of never even offering plastic bags?
That last one feels especially low to me and exposes the lie of stores "going green" even more.
At least I could shop in Brookline, where paper bags are still free in all the supermarkets. And every once in a while, I found a place in Boston where employees knew the 5 cent per bag rule was nonsense and offered a free one, sometimes giving me one outright.
Now that business don't want to risk reusable bags, even 7/11 is giving away free bags again. Of course, they've removed all their beverage deals as well.
I guess they had to make the money back somehow.
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