Lately for cleaning the catbox I've been using a stash of leftover grocery bags from shortly after we moved up here. They're stiffer and heavier than the ones the store gives out now (which are no less effective for carrying clumped litter). So every time I use them, I'm reminded of the continuing process of technological change. Each bag probably weighs some fraction of a gram, but when you multiply that by millions of people buying groceries every day, cutting 10 or 20 or 50 percent off the weight of your bags saves hundred of tons a year.
I've also noticed that this year's case of water bottles from Costco don't spring back as readily when you squeeze them. On the one hand I admire the engineers at the bottle-making plant, but on the other hand the Reuse part of my Reduce, Reuse, Recycle persona wonders if that's ultimately the most effective use of resources. I usually refill any given bottle half a dozen or a dozen times before sending it off to be chopped up into carpet fibers -- any pioneer or soldier of previous generations would have gone down on their knees weeping for joy to own a water container like the ones we now consume by the hundred of millions.
What if this year's crop develops plastic fatigue or goes Dali on us during a trip through the dishwasher? From the bottler's point of view that's a few more sales. And if most people -- as they do -- toss the bottle after a single use, that's less plastic used overall. But for me it rankles just the tiniest bit.
Posted by wallich at June 7, 2004 09:54 AM