Because this weekend I discovered farmers market strawberries and an iPhone don’t mix in a bag. The theory is that we should carry our canvas bags, and my main bag is a canvas bag. However, not all my groceries and purchases play well together or with the thing occupying the bag, and when my phone decided to be one wonderfully designed brick for 24 hours after sharing a bag with strawberries, I wondered how this new well intentioned law passed by the DC Council will work out in practice.
Yes, I wasn’t for it before the iPhone- Strawberry incident, mainly because the law includes paper bags and I wondered how it would impact pet poop pickup. I wasn’t aware paper bags were clogging up the waterways, so I question the logic of including paper bags which are recyclable, compostable, and good for boxes to be mailed. Seriously, taxing PAPER!?
Back to my bag…. I do have several canvas and other totes. And I do try to avoid getting a bag for small purchases. The $.05 credit I’m supposed to get doesn’t always get credited when I forgo the bag, I wonder if the charge will be levied regardless? Other problems include the fact that the bag has a limited amount of room, and it doesn’t help that I’m carrying around other things in it. Even when I have an extra plastic bag in my tote, that bag has been used and reused for lunch and more than likely is busy holding plastic lunch containers.
My first job was cashier at the Winn-Dixie and there I was taught proper bagging. Part of the lesson was certain things weren’t supposed to go in the same bag. Detergents, shampoos, soaps, paper (birthday cards, magazines) and the like, don’t go in the same bag as food, like milk, loose veggies and fruits, seafood, and deli items. Apparently the veggie bags and paper pastry bags will be tax free, so maybe there will be a greater use of those.
It will be interesting to see what human behavior results from all this.