Plastic Produce Bags
Credit: Lila Ash/Cartoonstock
The family in front of me in the supermarket checkout queue last Saturday morning only had one item of food in their trolley.
The trolley was actually quite full. That is, they had plenty of edible products, such as fruit flavoured drinks, icy poles, and super-cheezy corn chips. There was also a slab of Coke, a box of Nutri Grain, several bags of Cheetos, and something mulched, battered and frozen that claimed to contain chicken. The only item that I would classify as real food, however, was a single green apple.
The clear plastic bag containing that lone piece of fruit went onto the belt last, so I had plenty of time to watch it as it made its slow journey down to the checkout employee, where it would be swiftly swallowed by an even larger and more robust (i.e. environmentally destructive) plastic shopping bag.
Well, I tried to watch it. The youngest of the two children had been left in the trolley seat while the parents were unloading, repacking, and attempting to stop the older child from opening all the packets of biscuits. Unfortunately, the trolley seat was facing in my direction. I tried not to make eye contact with the toddler and just focus on the apple, but it was challenging. He seemed to have realised that I wasn't going anywhere and used the opportunity to perform a hilarious ad-lib stand-up routine.
At least, I assume it was hilarious. He seemed to think so. It was all in gibberish, so I couldn't really say.
When not distracted by the overly theatrical toddler, I found myself fixated on that apple as it moved slowly along the belt. Why only one? Which of them would eat it? Was it to be added to a recipe? Was it for a guest? Possibly a decorative display?
Most importantly, why was it in a plastic bag?
You know the ones I mean. Those lightly translucent, single serve bags they string up in rolls around the fruit and vegetable sections of supermarkets and grocery stores.
Everything else in their trolley was prepackaged in plastic, but it was mostly the apple that aggravated me. The other edible products, I can sort of understand. They arrived at the supermarket that way. You can't very well open a bag of chips and pour them into a reusable mesh bag. The barcode is on the packet.
Also, the salt would go everywhere.
The apple, however, does not require a barcoded packet. It already has a sticker. Nor is it sprinkled with anything. It's just an apple. It was sitting in the fruit section with all the other apples and only needed to be placed in the trolley. The single item that could have been purchased without superfluous use of plastic — and they wrapped it.
Maybe they were concerned about trolley contamination. Or the cleanliness of the belt at the checkout desk. Could they have been worried about their apple coming into contact with the other plastic-wrapped groceries they had purchased?
Possibly, but I don’t think so.
While these hygiene concerns may be a reality for many highly strung people, if the cleanliness of the two children was anything to go by, I doubt that they were a family of germaphobes.
Most likely, they put that green apple in a single serve plastic bag because, like many people in this country, they have adopted the ridiculous notion that food cannot be purchased unless it is wrapped and sealed in a polyethene or polypropylene outer layer.
If this family purchases one apple per week, that's fifty-two plastic bags that are very likely going straight into the bin. Our local supermarkets don’t have a soft plastic recycle option and, even if it did, there's a good chance that bag wouldn't make it back here. Let’s be honest, if you can't go to the trouble of wiping brown goo off the face of your toddler before a family trip to the supermarket, it is highly unlikely you're going to go to the trouble of bringing back the plastic bag you bought your apple in.
Only 9% of plastics are recycled. Everything else ends up in landfill. If we can avoid using plastic we should, and the easiest place to avoid using plastic is when buying apples at the supermarket.
This is especially true if you would really rather eat junk food and are probably going to leave your one apple in its bag in the fridge for a month until it's an unidentifiable green liquid, then throw it out (still in the bag).
If you plan on purchasing fruit — or vegetables — let's treat them, and the planet, with the decency of not first wrapping them in a pointless plastic bag. Get a reusable mesh bag or just put them in your trolley.* If you are concerned about trolley contamination, give them a little rinse when you get home.
Putting an apple into a mesh bag or straight into the trolley might even give you such a lovely climate-hero-personal-satisfaction feeling that you’ll find yourself eating more fruit and less of the pre-packaged toxic-substances-disguised-as-food products. That would be a win for both the environment and your waistline.
The Quiet EnvironmentalistFurther Reading
REDcycle scandal: What are soft plastics? How do you recycle them? (smh.com.au)
Climate Forward: More plastic trash (nytimes.com)
*If you don’t already have mesh bags for produce, I would recommend buying some. I use these ones: https://www.biome.com.au/products/onya-reusable-mesh-fruit-veg-produce-bags-set-of-8, but there are plenty of perfectly good brands available and most health food shops sell them. They do very well for all fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, and seeds. Grains too, although I wouldn’t recommend them for rolled oats unless you want everything in your grocery bag to look like it has been lightly dusted with cocaine. This may lead to some awkwardness when eating your apple in the office lunchroom.
Published 05 Nov 2023
