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Plastic bags - the good, the bad and the great

4/12/2015

3 Comments

 
Colombia seems to have an obsession with plastic bags. Whether it is within the home where any open packet of food is tightly wrapped up in a plastic bag, or the customs that occur in supermarkets where they often double bag certain items for no apparent reason and separate them from the rest of the shopping. Apparently fresh items cannot be in contact with non-fresh items, nor food items with non-food items. So you can imagine on a weekly shop how much plastic is used! Also, if you buy just one item, they will put it in a tiny plastic bag and automatically tie knots in it quicker than you can utter 'I don't need a bag'! I understand wrapping things up tightly that are going to be outside as there are ants and little insects that can get in and nibble on them, but wrapping all packets in an extra plastic bag in the fridge seems a little excessive to me! I would put money on every Colombian household having a collection of mostly very tiny plastic bags for use in this way, and certainly a huge collection of regular plastic bags from any shopping trip.

A good thing relating to plastic bags here is that you can buy water, milk and other drinks in a plastic bag rather than a bottle. This saves a lot of plastic and is so logical to me in environmental and economic terms. I know that milk in a bag is slowly coming to the West, but I am impressed to see it so widespread and normal here. You can't find milk in a bottle! Milk companies are starting to up their game here too, so that you don't need to buy a plastic holder to put your giant milk bag in to pour it. I got a little overexcited when I saw the newest invention (the red bag below), which has clever air bubbles creating a sort of handle.

What would be great is a little more awareness of the environmental impact of using so many plastic bags in supermarkets so that it doesn't overshadow the positive effects of the drinks in plastic bags that are currently used. Although I get the impression that this is less an environmentally-focused design, and more a profit-based idea to save money in production. Then again, supermarkets could think along these lines and save money by not having to produce as many plastic bags. I am starting a one-woman revolution and refusing plastic bags whenever I can, even though I get funny looks when I do so. Not sure whether I will be able to single-handedly change the obsession but you have to start somewhere!
3 Comments
Stephy
6/19/2015 12:04:38 pm

Was looking for some expat blogs and came across yours. Oddly enough I think we live near by haha. I thought the liquids in bags was funny at first, but hey it is better for the environment.

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Marie
6/20/2015 02:14:44 am

Hi Stephy

Thanks for your comment! I love the plastic bags, it's so handy! I wish they had that back home. It's unusual for expats to live down here isn't it? Normally they are being trendy up in San Antonio, been there, done that! What do you do here?

Marie

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Chanti
1/3/2016 05:49:18 am

When I lived in Paraguay I also though bagged milk was an awesome idea - a lot less plastic used! But now I'm not so sure, plastic bottles can be recycled but the plastic bags can't. Ideally we could get milk in refillable glass bottles but here that's not an option.

Funny, but the other week I actually saw an advertisement outside the Cosmo Centro urging people to use reusable bags when grocery shopping - I have yet to see Colombians put that in practice here however. Although, you can get really nice reusable bags at Home Center in the checkout line - I think 6.000 pesos. It's a new and emerging idea for Colombians that will hopefully catch on soon.

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